He Married His Childhood Sweetheart for Her Prank, I'm Nobody's Mistress, EVER novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Board

Mrs. Ashworth called me herself at six.

"Ms. Fairbanks. I'd like you in the boardroom in twenty minutes."

"No."

"Please."

I had never heard her say please.

I looked at Declan across the desks, and he stood up and took his coat off the hook.

The boardroom was on the fortieth floor, with a table long enough for sixteen and a wall of black glass.

Five board members sat on one side in dark suits, with their tablets in front of them.

Rodney sat at the head, grey in the face.

Mrs. Ashworth stood at the window with her back to the room.

She turned when we came in, and she looked ten years older than she had in the tea room.

"Sit down," she said. "Both of you."

I sat.

Declan took the chair behind mine, against the wall.

"This meeting was called to approve a statement," said a board member with silver hair. "In support of Mrs. Ashworth's daughter-in-law, after this afternoon's incident."

"Delphine is not my daughter-in-law," said Mrs. Ashworth. "She's a girl who stood next to me in a courthouse and cried until I signed as the witness."

"Mother," Rodney said.

"Be quiet."

She walked to the end of the table.

"I watched the door footage this afternoon. All of it. Mr. MacMaster posted the sound."

She turned to Rodney.

"She tells Ms. Fairbanks, 'I have the phone. I watched it three times.' What phone, Rodney?"

He did not look at me.

"Mother, not here."

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