Fated to My Cruel CEO novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Shred

The shredding truck stood in the Carrow driveway with its back doors sealed.

It was dusk, and the columns I grew up under had gone gray.

Florence was waiting at the kitchen door with her handbag and her coat on.

"The man took the first load to the yard at four," she said. "He comes back at eight for the rest."

"Where is my father?"

"At the Toledo Club with his lawyer. He won't be home before ten."

"And Colt?"

She pressed her lips together.

"On the stairs."

He was.

My brother sat on the fourth step with his elbows on his knees and a glass of water in his hand.

He looked like a man who had been awake for three days.

"Dad told me to stand here," Colt said. "If you came, I'm supposed to call him."

His phone lay face up on the step beside him, with my father's name on the screen.

His thumb hovered over it.

Ansel stopped in the hall with his hands loose at his sides.

Nobody breathed.

"I haven't decided," Colt said to the floor. "Go on. You've got until I do."

We went.

The study smelled of paper and cold leather.

The lighthouse painting leaned against the wall.

The safe was open and empty.

Four black rubbish bins stood in a row on the rug, still full, with a sheet of plastic over the top of each.

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