Chapter 5: The Cousin

Elias made tea nobody asked for and put a blanket around Roberta's shoulders.

She sat at the little kitchen table in her party dress, with the ring still in its sandwich bag.

She looked about nine years old.

"He called me his little snack," she said. "In October. I thought it was sweet."

"It was a warning," I said.

"In hindsight, it was a warning and a menu."

I laughed in spite of everything, and she laughed in spite of everything, and then she put her face in her hands.

"Aunt Marcia called an hour ago," she said through her fingers. "I told her he'd dumped me."

"What did she say?"

"She said, 'Be gracious, Roberta. He needs your cousin now.'"

Elias set a mug down in front of her without a sound.

"She sold you," I said.

"For a dividend." Roberta wiped her nose. "I'm a twenty-five percent shareholder, and I got traded like a used car."

She dug in her handbag and pulled out the whole folder, not just page fourteen.

It was thick, with a rubber band around it, and it smelled like Landon's cologne.

"I took everything on his seat when he went to the bathroom at the engagement dinner," she said.

"I don't know what any of it is. Numbers make me hungry."

"Give it to me."

I spread the pages across the table and put my glasses on.

This is the thing I'm good at.

It is the only thing, some days, and I have never once been grateful for it until that night.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Her Broke Handyman Husband Was the Secret Billionaire from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.