The CEO's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Day Five

I woke at six with his hand still around my wrist.

The window was grey, and Dalton was already awake, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

I did not move.

"You talked in your sleep," I said.

His hand tightened and then let go.

"What did I say?"

"You apologized to someone. You kept saying the word road."

The mattress shifted as he sat up.

He put his feet on the floor with his back to me, the long muscles of his shoulders drawn tight.

"Agnes told me to ask you directly," I said. "So I'm asking. What didn't you see?"

I watched his hands.

They closed on his knees, white at the knuckles, and opened again.

"Not today," he said.

"Dalton."

"Tonight. After the gala, before you go to the airport."

His voice cracked.

"I'll tell you everything. Give me until tonight."

"That's what you want? A few more hours?"

"It's all I've got that isn't a lie."

I thought about it.

Then I put my palm flat between his shoulder blades.

He flinched, and then he leaned back into it.

"Tonight," I said. "Before the plane."

He nodded without turning.

At seven-thirty my phone began to buzz and did not stop.

Becca's name. A number I didn't know. Another unknown. A second from Becca.

I sat on the edge of the guest bed, still in the sheet, and opened the first message.

It was a link to a gossip column.

MERROW HEIR'S WIFE FLEES THE GALA WEEKEND, said the headline.

Under it was a photo of me at a charity luncheon, looking small.

The caption said the neglected Mrs. Merrow had secretly booked a one-way ticket to Zurich.

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