Chapter 19: A Reference

The conference room on the thirty-first floor had a view of the whole Front Range and no windows I could open.

I arrived at 7:40 with a folder.

The managing partner sat at the head of the table, a gray-haired woman with a pen she never clicked.

Dustin was already there, in his best gray jacket, with a lawyer's patience on his face.

He stood when I walked in.

"Rae. Thanks for coming."

"It's my job."

"I know this is awkward."

"It's less awkward than the email."

The partner cut in. "Rae, sit. Dustin, sit. Let's keep it short."

I sat.

Dustin opened with the same story as the email, but warmer.

He said he was worried about me, which was the first lie.

He said that since our breakup I had been unstable, which was the second.

He said that at a public event I had humiliated him in front of two hundred people and demanded ten thousand dollars.

That he had paid it only to end the scene.

He looked at the partner when he said it, sad and reasonable, and I understood why he'd sold so much software.

When he finished, the partner turned to me.

"Rae. Your answer."

I opened my folder.

"First, the money," I said. "Every page is in the folder, in order."

I slid the transfer across, then the messages, then the receipt.

"Look at the memo line on the last one."

"It reads, in his words, repayment, with apologies."

I let her read it.

"I wasn't threatened," I said. "I was owed."

"There's the event," Dustin said quietly.

"There is."

"A member of the audience recorded it."

"The video is on this flash drive."

"You can see what the room did."

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