The Paper Trail novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Lisbon

"Go home, Daphne," said Lars.

"Lars..."

"Leave the video. Leave the keys on the step. And go."

She looked from him to me, and I watched her weigh whether staying was worth it.

It was not.

She set the keys on the porch rail.

Then she walked down the gravel in her sneakers to a car parked at the road.

Her taillights shrank.

Lars did not say anything until they were gone.

"She isn't lying," he said.

"Inside," I said.

He followed me into the kitchen.

I did not sit, and I did not turn on the overhead light.

I stood against the counter with my arms crossed, under the cow magnet and the page-three photograph.

"Tell me all of it," I said. "In order."

He stood in the middle of the floor.

"Four years ago I went to a dairy trade fair in Lisbon," he said. "Daphne told me she was at a retreat in Door County."

"The week of my father's funeral."

"I didn't know that yet," he said, low and rough.

"The second night, I went down to the hotel bar to find a man from a cheese company."

"And?"

"And my wife was at a table in the corner with a man, and I knew the way she leaned."

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