My Wife's Secret Son Isn't Mine novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Lydia's Price

The letter was one page, on thick cream paper with a law firm's name across the top.

Willa read it over my shoulder in my mother's kitchen, with her hair still smelling of woodsmoke.

My client, Ms. Overholt, will supply a recording that she believes is material to the pending custody matter.

In exchange, Mr. Penrose will arrange regular Saturday visits between Ms. Overholt and the minor child.

"She wants to trade him," Willa said.

"She wants to see him."

"For a recording."

"I'll tell her no," I said.

"Tell her to her face."

I met Lydia at noon in the cafeteria of the hospital where she works.

It was public, it was beige, and nobody there knew my last name.

She sat at a corner table with a cup of tea she wasn't drinking.

She had lost weight in nine days, and her wedding ring was still on.

"You came," she said.

"The answer is no."

Her face did not change.

"Archie isn't mine to trade, Lyd," I said. "He isn't yours either, not the way you mean."

"I know."

"Then why did you send a lawyer?"

"Because it was the only way I knew to ask."

She turned her cup around once.

"I have never in my life asked for something without a plan to make you pay for it. Dane taught me that."

"I'm done with plans."

She reached into her purse and slid a small black drive across the table.

"Take it anyway."

"I just told you no."

"I know what you told me."

She pushed it another inch.

"I recorded him on Sunday night, after your mother's. I drove to the dealership and sat in his office, and I let him talk, because he can't stop once he thinks you're on his side."

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