My Marriage Was Their Bet novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Year Three

Bancroft flew to Milwaukee on Tuesday to see a bank about the buyout.

He kissed me at the door and said he would call at ten.

At nine, Bea's delivery van was idling around the corner with its lights off.

I rode to the thirty-first floor with a tray of lemon bars as my excuse.

Samson opened his door before I knocked.

He took the tray out of my hands, set it on the hall table and looked at me.

"He has the napkin," he said.

"I know."

"He has the friends."

"I know that too."

"Then why did you shake your head at me in the boardroom?"

"Because you were going to say it," I said.

"Right there, in front of the board, with no proof in your hand. He would have won on the spot."

"You didn't ask me."

"Ask you what?"

"What I wanted to do."

His voice was low and level, and I saw how tired he was.

"I stood in your hall with a coat in my hands," he said. "I would have burned that house down if you'd said the word."

"That isn't fair."

"It isn't fair. It's what happened."

"I slapped you."

"And I let it be the end of it."

He turned away.

"I should have said it again, and again, until you heard it."

"I wasn't ready to hear it."

"I know."

"Don't you dare say you know."

He turned back.

"I was twenty-seven," I said. "I'd been married three years. If anyone had told me it was a bet, I would have broken."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Marriage Was Their Bet from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.