Chapter 14: Not the Door

Colby made a small, choked sound.

"Vanessa," he said. "What are you saying?"

"I was going to tell you tonight."

She turned her wet blue eyes on him.

"Please, don't let them take me. I'm carrying your baby."

Colby's mouth opened, and he looked at his father.

Colby's father crossed the ballroom in front of three hundred people and stopped an arm's length from his son.

"The firm is not yours," he said. "Not the title, not the desk, not the account. Hand me your keys."

"Dad, she's pregnant."

"Then you have a reason to find work. Your keys."

Colby put them in his hand.

The officers took Vanessa by both arms, and she kept saying his name until the doors closed behind her.

Becky found that her knees had started to shake only when Kendrick took her hand.

He had not let go of the emerald.

"Come on," he said. "Take me out of here."

She pushed his chair through the quiet room, past Wendell, who lifted his cane to her like a salute.

At the lake house he sent Max away and rolled into the bedroom with the stone still in his fist.

He set it on the dresser and looked at it for a long moment.

"Thank you," he said.

"You don't have to."

"I do."

He turned the chair to face her.

"And I have something else to say, and I need you to let me finish."

She sat on the edge of the bed.

"The shares are mine. The necklace is back. Colby's finished, and Vanessa is where she belongs."

His voice was even.

"You came into this for a reason, and the reason is done. I won't hold you to the year."

He paused.

"I'll sign anything you put in front of me, and the house is yours either way."

Becky stared at him.

He thought she wanted the door.

He was offering it with his hand open, so that it would not hurt when she took it.

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