He Didn't Know She Was the Heiress novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: Housekeeping, Paid in Full
"His wife," Eleanor Sorrell repeated.
She said it without any heat.
Ethan found his voice first.
"She's confused, Grandmother. We've been separated for a while, and she's taking it hard."
"We've been separated for two days," I said.
I took the cashier's check out of my coat pocket and laid it on the white tablecloth, in front of his plate.
"Fifteen thousand dollars, to stay away from this house. The memo line says Housekeeping."
Somebody at the table made a small, shocked sound.
The aunt in green silk had gone pink.
"I was married to him at the Hartford courthouse seven years ago," I said. "He asked me not to tell the family. He said his grandmother wouldn't approve of a nurse with no money."
"I never said that," Ethan said.
"You said it the night you proposed, and in March when you wouldn't take me to Paris." I kept my voice level. "I paid off your law school loans out of what my mother left me. You never asked where it came from."
Eleanor turned her head toward him.
"You told me you cleared those yourself."
"Grandmother, she's twisting..."
"You'll have your turn."
Samson stood behind the empty chair at Eleanor's right and watched me.
His face was unreadable, and I could not tell what he thought.
I took a breath.
"Mrs. Sorrell, you invited Ms. Fairbanks to this table. That's me. I was Lena Ward when I married him, after my mother's name. My father built Fairbanks Hotels."
A fork rang against a plate somewhere.
"Yesterday morning I walked into the Fairbanks board and stopped the vote to sell the company to you. I own sixty-one percent of it."
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