My Wife's Last Call I Never Answered novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Second Payment
I had been sleeping in the firm's model room since the house sold.
There was a cot behind the shelves of foam towers, a hot plate, and a window that looked at the parking lot.
Philippa knocked at nine.
She wore the cream coat from the press breakfast and carried her cello case in one hand.
"May I?" she said.
"No."
"Then I'll say it in the doorway." She smiled. "You look terrible, Hayes."
I stood with one hand on the frame and did not move.
"I've been thinking about how this ends," she said. "It ends badly for everyone, and I'd rather it didn't."
"Say what you came to say."
"I want the tour funded through spring. Eight hundred thousand dollars, quietly, through the foundation, the way it was before you got dramatic."
"No."
"I'll issue a statement. I was mistaken about the phone. The Long Center was a family misunderstanding, and you were grieving and I was kind." She tilted her head. "I'll withdraw the complaint at the hospital."
"The complaint is yours."
"It's a very sad complaint. Dr. Tillman has an unstable judgment under stress, it says. A fellowship wants to hear that before it makes a final offer."
My hands had gone cold.
"You said you'd fix my clients, too," I said.
"One call to the hotel chairman. His wife adores me." She shrugged. "It's a small price, Hayes. I've been very reasonable about the price."
"And if I say no?"
She set the cello case against the wall and took out her phone.
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