He Made Me Hear Her, So I Took My House Back novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Club

Odette's POV

Gabriel went into the Alamo Heights Club at noon on Tuesday with his phone open in his breast pocket and my voice in his ear.

I sat in the back seat of Sasha's car in the parking lot, with Dahlia beside me and Sasha behind the wheel.

Dahlia's phone lay on the seat between us, set to record.

"Say something so I know it works," Sasha whispered.

"Nothing is going to work if you keep whispering," Dahlia said.

Then a chair scraped on the line, and we all went quiet.

"Brother," Rafael said. "Thank you for coming."

"You said you'd pay me."

"I always meant to." Ice clinked in a glass. "Sixty thousand, cash. It's in the envelope under my napkin. Take it."

"What's the one thing?"

"Easy." Rafael sounded relaxed and kind. "You tell her the gala is her chance. Sign on the stage, and Calloway forgives the whole note. She keeps her name clean, and nobody learns who ate whose dinner."

"Why would she sign?"

"Because it will be nine o'clock, and Mama will have just thanked the donors. Eight men will be sitting there who have been told the house is the Fund's." He laughed. "She will be holding a pen in front of all of them, and she won't have the nerve to be the woman who said no."

Dahlia mouthed a single word at me: Stage.

I nodded. My mouth had gone dry.

"And if she doesn't sign?" Gabriel said.

"Then she's the daughter who let her father's name go into a courtroom. She'll stand there with a pen, hating herself." A pause. "She's honest, Gabe. It's her only weakness."

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