No More Husband, No More Son novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: Convenient
On Thursday at nine I walked into Pennington Auto with Roz's old phone in my coat pocket, recording.
Clyde waited in his truck at the far end of the lot.
"If you're not out in twenty minutes," he had said, "I'm coming in."
"If you come in early, you ruin it."
"Twenty minutes," he said again.
The receptionist did not look up when I passed her desk.
Brice's office sat on a mezzanine above the showroom, behind a glass wall.
He stood at the window with his back to me.
"Shut the door," he said.
I shut it.
He turned the lock, and then he drew the blinds one by one until the showroom below disappeared.
"Cassidy is across town choosing centerpieces for Family Night," he said. "So it's only us. Sit."
"I'll stand."
"Suit yourself."
He looked different with nobody to smile for.
His face was tired and flat, and the voice he used was one I knew from the kitchen after the guests went home.
"I'm going to offer you something," he said. "Think before you answer."
"Offer."
"The divorce, on my terms, signed this week. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Every other weekend with Milo, unsupervised, starting next month. The photo comes down today."
"And?"
"You leave the hardware man alone."
I kept my face still.
"Brennan," Brice said. "Don't look blank. I've had my eye on that store for years. He keeps his head down, and now he's carrying your coffee. I want him gone from your life, and from this town."
"Why do you care?"
"Because a man like that gives a woman like you ideas." He came around the desk. "He's lonely. He feels guilty about something. Men like that make promises, and then they remember what promises cost."
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