The Wife He Left for a Baby That Wasn't His novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Check
Willa's POV
The lawyer came into Garrick Cakes at nine on Friday morning, and the line of customers at the counter parted for her.
She wore a grey coat and carried a leather case, and she asked my assistant for me by my married name.
"Garrick," I said from the oven door. "It has always been Garrick on the sign."
"Ms. Garrick. I act for Harlan Rutledge. May we sit?"
Sam came out of the back with a tray of scones.
He had been there since five.
He set the tray down, wiped his hands on a towel, and I saw him see her case and go still.
"Not here," he said.
"Here is fine," I said. "I have nothing to hide from my customers."
The three regulars at the window table found something to read.
The lawyer sat at the small table beside the register and opened her case on it.
She took out two folders.
"Mr. Rutledge, your father asked me to deliver this to you in front of Ms. Garrick."
She slid the first folder across.
Sam didn't open it.
"The terms are these," she said, calm and professional. "Controlling shares, transferred Sunday. The yard lease signed over. A seat on the board. In return, you withdraw from this matter."
"Which matter?"
"All of it. No testimony, no witness, no support to Ms. Garrick in her divorce or any other proceeding."
I watched his face.
I had told myself in the shower that morning that I wasn't afraid of this.
I was.
I knew he'd told me everything that mattered, and I knew what the Rutledge name could do to a man's arithmetic.
Sam picked up the folder and held it.
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