The Phoenix's Rebirth for Revenge novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Father's Offer

Nobody clapped.

Three hundred people stood on the slipway with their champagne going warm and looked from Gran to my father.

He had stopped halfway across the floor with Sabine under his arm and the white coat still in his fist.

"Mother," he said, with a laugh that broke in the middle. "Maybe this isn't the moment."

"It's the only moment I've got everyone sober," said Gran.

Somebody near the band laughed out loud.

Gran handed the microphone back to the bandleader and sat down.

My mother stood very still by the bar, smiling at nothing.

Her eyes moved over the crowd, counting who had heard.

All of them.

On Sunday afternoon my father rang the bell at Marlborough Street.

Ambrose let him in and stood behind him in the hall with his arms folded.

My father didn't take off his coat.

He sat down at the dining table across from me and took a checkbook out of his inside pocket.

"I'm going to make this simple," he said.

"Please."

He wrote a number, tore the check out and slid it across the table.

Five hundred thousand dollars.

I didn't touch it.

"That's yours," my father said. "Today. In return, you break off this ridiculous engagement, you let Sabine have what was always meant for her, and you stop this campaign against your sister."

"Campaign."

"Accusations at dinner. Police at a stranger's house. A scene at the centennial in front of every client I have." He spread his hands. "Your mother cried until two in the morning."

"Did Sabine?"

"Sabine is devastated."

Behind him, Ambrose made a noise that might have been a cough.

"Dad," I said. "Somebody put digoxin in Gran's tea for a month."

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