Was Our Marriage Your Revenge? novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Nothing Without Me

Gilbert looked at the little red light on Rhiannon's phone, and he laughed.

It was a real laugh, loud and delighted, nothing like the one I knew.

"Miss Birch, this is Illinois," he said. "Recording a private conversation without consent is a felony."

"No judge will hear that tape. Play it, and you are the one who goes to prison."

"Good to know," Rhiannon said, and she did not lower the phone.

Quentin had not moved.

"Say it to me," he said.

Gilbert dropped the handkerchief on the table.

I had never seen him let go of it before.

"Yes," he said. "All of it, and I would do it again."

Gretchen made a small sound against the wall.

"I kept a file on you for twelve years, Quentin. I was waiting for the day you grew a spine."

"My father," Quentin said.

"Your father was a fool with a famous name. He took the clients, and he took the credit, and he never once asked who did the work."

Gilbert straightened his cardigan.

"I stood at his grave and picked out the flowers myself."

Quentin's hands closed.

I saw the knuckles go white.

"You stood next to me at the funeral," he said. "You held my arm."

"I held you up. Someone had to."

"You made me this."

"I made you everything." Gilbert's voice rose for the first time. "You were a grieving boy with a borrowed suit and a bad temper. I fed you. I taught you. I gave you a company."

"You gave me a lie."

"You were nothing without me, Quentin."

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