My Wife's Last Call I Never Answered novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Paper Bag

Hayes's POV

Rory was waiting in my office at seven that evening with the door closed and a brown paper bag on my desk.

It was creased and soft and had been folded over at the top and taped.

"I need to say something first," he said.

"Not tonight."

"Tonight." He did not sit down. "Three years ago you told me why you married her. I laughed. I thought it was the sort of thing you say when you're embarrassed to be happy."

I knew which conversation he meant.

"I was wrong to laugh," Rory said. "I knew better, and I let you say it, and I took your coffee and went back to work. So I'm not clean in this either."

"You booked her money as equity," I said. "That's the only thing you did right."

"That's the other thing I did." He pushed the bag across the desk. "Open it."

I peeled off the tape.

Inside were hundreds of small yellow squares, curled at the corners, held in loose bundles with rubber bands.

Every one had a tiny star drawn in the bottom right.

"Where did you get these?"

"When the firm moved. The movers carried out your recycling and I saw the corner of one in the bin." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I fished them out. I told myself I'd give them back to you someday. I didn't think it would be like this."

I took out the top bundle.

The first note was dated the morning after she stitched my hand.

My stitches aren't neat, it said. Please come back in ten days so I can take them out properly. Bring a friend if you're scared.

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