Chapter 21: What It Cost

Lachlan's POV

I called the board for noon, and I told them to bring nothing.

Twelve people sat at the black glass table.

The old director with the gold ring sat nearest me, with his hands folded over his stomach.

Cordelia's chair at my right hand was empty.

She had sent word that she had a migraine, and I had let her.

"I have three things to say," I said. "Then you can vote on whatever you want."

Nobody moved.

"The first," I said. "Three years ago I served my wife divorce papers on our fifth anniversary."

The old director cleared his throat. "Lachlan, this is a private matter."

"It stopped being private when a photograph of her ran in every paper in the country."

I looked down the table.

"I believed that photograph. I did not ask who the man was."

I made myself keep going.

"I did not ask my wife one question about it. I handed her an envelope and told her she would leave with nothing."

A woman at the far end looked at her hands.

"A week later I went to bed with a woman in my wife's house, in my wife's bed."

Nobody looked at me.

"I was angry and ashamed, and I thought my wife had earned it."

"Lachlan," the old director said.

"Let me finish."

My voice shook, and I let it.

"The second thing. My wife was pregnant when she signed."

I let them wait one breath.

"I have a son. His name is Rory, he is three years old, and I met him yesterday."

Somebody drew a breath.

"The photograph was not an affair. The man in it is her old teacher, and she was showing him her paintings."

I looked at the empty chair on my right.

"Someone sent it to me because they wanted me to believe a lie. I did, because it was easy."

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