My Groom Chose His Mistress, Not Knowing I Was the CEO novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Sunday in Newport
Iris's POV
The Brantley summer house in Newport had a dining table that seated twenty, and on Sunday night it was set for six.
Margaret sat at one end.
Mr. Brantley sat at the other with a cane against his chair and a gray look around his mouth, still pale from the hospital.
Carter sat across from me, and Lydia's place was empty.
Jack sat on my left and didn't touch his wine.
"I'm so glad you came," Margaret said.
"You asked."
"I did."
A maid poured soup.
Nobody lifted a spoon.
"Let me say it plainly, because we're all adults." Margaret folded her napkin. "My family needs the Dunhill loan. Dunhill needs a stable chair. And you need a husband who is, whatever else he is, from a good family and a good school."
"I have a husband?"
"You have a marriage license."
"Unsigned."
"A technicality."
Carter finally lifted his eyes.
"Iris, I know I behaved badly," he said, in the soft voice from the stairwell. "I've ended it with Lydia. She's gone. I sent her to her aunt's."
"Did you rehearse that?"
He blinked.
"Rehearse what?"
"The three seconds you wait after you say it."
His face went blank.
I watched him decide to keep going.
"I love you," he said. "I mean it."
I counted.
One. Two. Three.
He looked at my hands.
Jack made a very small sound beside me.
I put my spoon in the soup and ate a mouthful, slowly, so that I wouldn't stand up and throw the bowl at him.
"Carter's apologies are sincere," Margaret said. "Whatever you think you found in a drawer."
"You know about the drawer."
"My housekeeper called me. Loyalty is a quality I value."
"She gave me the key."
"And I'll deal with her."
"You'll deal with her by letting her go?"
"Of course."
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