Over Before She Loved Me novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Chair at the End of the Table
Dustin read the letter in the car, in the driveway of his mother's house, with Joelle beside him.
The paper was thick and the handwriting was his grandfather's, tall and slanted.
He read it aloud, because his voice was steadier than his hands.
"Dustin. If you are holding this, you married for love, and I was right."
Joelle covered her mouth.
"I made your father marry for the firm. He did what I told him. He died polite and alone, and I knew it was my fault long before I admitted it."
Dustin stopped, breathed and went on.
"I wrote the trust so it vests after three years. Anyone can fake a year. Almost no one can fake three. I wanted you to stay at a table with another person long enough to be caught."
"He planned it," Joelle whispered.
"He planned for it to be an accident."
He turned the page.
"If she is the woman I think she is, she never asked you for a cent. Tell her an old man said she was the first Rayburn wife who didn't ask. Tell her to forgive your mother. Then do not listen to the last part, because I know you, and you will not do it for a year."
Dustin laughed, and it broke in the middle.
He folded the letter and held it in his lap.
"He's been dead four years, and he still knows me."
Joelle took his hand.
"He was right about one thing," she said.
"Which?"
"I'm not asking you for a cent."
He kissed her knuckles and started the car.
On Monday morning the boardroom was full.
Every partner was in a chair, and the long walnut table had been polished.
Dolores stood at the head of it.
She was wearing her pearls again.
She held no paper.
"I'll be brief," she said. "I have been your chair for eleven years."
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