Step Aside, I'm the King of Capital novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Locked Out

Ottilie arrived on Wednesday afternoon with one suitcase and a thermos.

She stood in the doorway of the ice house apartment, small and grey-bobbed in a cardigan the color of oatmeal, and looked at Emerson.

Then she looked at the open kitchen, the river, and me in a borrowed sweater.

"So this is the wife," she said.

"This is the wife," I said.

"I'm Ottilie." She held out a hand. "I've worked for him for six years and he has never once phoned me about a woman."

"I'm Emerson. He phoned you about a pledge."

"That was the closest he's come."

Emerson took her hand, and the two of them held on a second longer than a handshake needed.

I felt I were watching two auditors meet.

"Tea?" Emerson said. "I have a kettle."

"I brought my own."

"Of course you did."

"I have found," Ottilie said, "that people who say they'll make you tea make it with a bag and a microwave."

Emerson's mouth twitched.

"There's a stove."

"Then we'll get along."

They sat at the long kitchen table, and Ottilie unscrewed her thermos and poured.

I stayed standing at the window.

"Tell me where we are," I said.

"We are nowhere," Ottilie said cheerfully. "Sullivan has changed every credential, the Singapore board has had a call from his lawyer, and every investor on the list knows the name Mr. S and nothing else."

"They know my emails."

"They know the emails that come from the account he controls. He's sent them a letter on your behalf saying you've resigned for personal reasons." She sipped. "It's rather nice prose. I suspect he had help."

"Lavinia?" I said.

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