Backstabbing Friend's Self-Inflicted Shame novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Corkscrew

Rafe's POV

Tate arrived at seven exactly, with a bottle of red in one hand and a bunch of white lilies in the other.

I stood in the hall with the coats and watched him through the gap in the study door.

He had put on the good suit.

His lip had healed to a thin line, and he smiled with the other side of his mouth.

"Honey," he said to Greer. "Look at you."

"Come in."

"I'd like to apologize for lunch. The doctor was a mistake. I'm learning that I'm a poor judge of people."

"You are," Greer said.

She took the lilies and put them on the hall table without looking at them.

I remembered the cemetery, and I held on to the edge of the coat rack.

The dining room was laid for two.

Her phone leaned against the candlestick on the sideboard, recording, with its camera pointing at the table.

I was to stay out of sight until she called for the corkscrew.

That was the signal.

I had agreed to it in the kitchen at six, with her hand on my chest.

I had not said how it would feel to hear his voice through a wall.

They sat.

He poured.

"To the family business," Tate said.

"To the family business."

I could hear every word through the kitchen door.

"You said you'd give me an answer," he said.

"I have one."

"Is it the one I want?"

"Tell me the offer again. I want to be sure."

"You hand me the disk. I resign as COO in thirty days, with a handsome package, and I leave the state. You keep the company, the house, and your thirty-four percent."

"And Valeria?"

"Is a problem I'll solve."

"How?"

There was a small silence.

I heard him take a sip.

"I'd rather not say," he said. "But I'll make it simple, Greer. I'll give you Valeria."

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