He Scorned His Substitute Wife, Now He Begs Her Back novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Empty Chair
Luca Benedetti walked into the boardroom on the fifty-first floor as a guest, with a visitor's badge clipped to his lapel.
He had sat at that table since he was twenty-three.
Now he stood at the door and waited to be told where to put himself.
Seven directors were already seated.
Aldo sat at the head of the table, in the chair with the high back, with the gold pen laid in front of him.
He looked rested, and he looked pleased to see everyone.
"My son," Aldo said pleasantly. "I wasn't told you were coming."
"I asked him," said the eldest director, a woman who had been Aldo's friend for thirty years. "Sit down, Luca. Anywhere."
He took the chair at the foot of the table, as far from his father as the room allowed.
The director opened a folder.
"Last night," she said, "the district attorney's office sent us a courtesy copy of a statement."
She laid her hand on it.
"Ms. Holloway gave it to the police at one in the morning, with her lawyer beside her. It runs to nineteen pages."
Aldo smiled.
"Ms. Holloway is a distressed young woman who has said a great many things this week."
"She says you paid her two million dollars to leave when she was nineteen and your son was twenty-two. She says you called her back in March. She says you told her how to fall."
The director turned a page.
"She has your texts, Aldo. She kept every one."
Nobody at the table moved.
"I will tell you what I did," Aldo said, and his voice stayed warm.
He spread his hands.
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