Chapter 17: Second Night

Hazel went down at nine, and the nanny took the second bedroom and shut the door.

I sat at the dining table of the suite with the copy of page nine under the lamp.

I had read Dean's blue handwriting so many times that the letters had stopped looking like letters.

Rafe sat across from me with his tablet.

He had been quiet since the tea room, and I knew why.

"It was me," I said.

He looked up.

"In the suite, the day his lawyer's letter came, when I asked you to keep the numbers quiet.

"Dean's lawyer says you hid me for six years, and I let him say it."

"You said counsel would answer."

"Counsel will. I'll say it to the judge myself. I asked, and you did what I asked."

"I know."

"Then why didn't you say so at breakfast?"

"Because I didn't want you saying it out of fairness," he said. "I wanted you to say it because you wanted to."

I put my pen down.

"That's the nicest thing anyone has done for me in six years," I said, "and it's also infuriating."

"Both can be true."

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Be reasonable when I'm angry at somebody else."

His mouth moved.

"June twelfth," he said. "The estate office called your house to confirm the address on file. I approved the call."

I stared at him.

"A woman answered. She said she'd pass the message on to Mrs. Harlan."

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