The CEO's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Agnes's Door

Agnes Merrow received me in bed, propped on four pillows, with her cane laid across the quilt.

She was seventy-two. Her white hair was pinned in a low knot, and her pale blue eyes missed nothing in any room.

"Shut the door," she said. "Sit where I can see you."

I sat on the edge of the armchair.

"Now," she said. "Tell me what that girl has done to your closet."

I stared at her.

"The housekeeper tells me everything," Agnes said. "Six garment bags. The coats to the guest room. I'd like to hear it from you."

"It's only a closet."

"It's the fourth thing."

"You counted."

"I count everything. It's how I outlived two husbands and a stock crash."

For the first time that week, I laughed without having to hide it.

Agnes reached over to the nightstand and picked up a small flat box.

"Your plane leaves Saturday?"

"At eleven forty."

"Then you have time to listen to an old woman."

She put the box in my hand.

Inside, on dark velvet, lay a ring with a square-cut emerald the size of my smallest fingernail, set in plain old gold.

"It was my mother's," she said. "I don't wear it anymore. It's not a Merrow ring. It came from my side, and I'd like it to go somewhere that matters."

"Agnes, I can't."

"You can wear it, and you can sell it if you must, but wear it first." She waved her cane at me. "Saturday. At the gala. On your left hand, where the other one was."

I turned the box in my fingers.

"You know about the ring?"

"I know you took off the diamond. The whole house has glanced at your bare hand since this morning, and nobody dares mention it."

← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend