Chapter 5: Eight

I should have kept quiet.

I knew that even while my mouth was opening.

"She told Kenneth Ashworth it was his," I said. "On a phone call yesterday. In front of three people."

The man's smile went out.

"That's not true."

"Ask her."

"I will."

"Ask her about the pouch, too," I said. "The bag of fake blood. It's on tape."

"There's no..." He stopped.

He looked at my pocket, where the phone was.

He took a step back, and then another.

"This conversation didn't happen," he said.

"It's recorded."

"Then you've made a very big mistake."

He turned and walked toward the stairs fast, his briefcase swinging.

I sat on the bumper of a stranger's car, trembling.

Two men now.

One was the CEO, who wanted a test.

One was a lawyer in a grey suit, who thought the baby was his son.

I did not know yet how many were left.

My phone buzzed.

It was a text from a number I did not know.

"Come to 51. 7 p.m. Use the east elevator. Tell no one. C.A."

My father leaned out of the car window and shouted, "Pipes! Your mother says we're getting donuts!"

I wiped my face and walked to the car.

At seven that night the tower lobby was almost empty.

The guard at the desk looked at my badge, nodded as if he had been told to expect me, and pointed to the east elevator.

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