The 23rd Deletion Bride novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Keycards

Dalton came off the stage in one jump.

"Give me that phone!"

The guard from the front desk caught him around the chest before he reached her.

"Sir. Sir, stop."

"She's lying! She's hysterical, she's under arrest, she'll say anything!"

"Then you won't mind the board hearing it," Delaney said.

She did not hand the phone to me.

She walked to the long table and laid it in front of the gray-haired board member.

"Read them," she said. "Not me. I'd rather you didn't think I picked."

The board member put on her glasses.

She scrolled for a while with her mouth set flat.

"The morning of the funeral," she read, aloud, in a dry courtroom voice. "Sent at seven-ten."

"If she shows up at the church, tell her it's been moved. Don't let her find the real address."

A sound went through the crowd.

It was not a gasp.

It was lower than that, and angrier.

"Another. Three days later." The board member's thumb moved. "Block every email from the Anchor Fund. If Stroud calls, say she's unwell."

"A third, the night before last. She'll sign anything if I cry. Sale closes Friday. Then it's you and me and a flight to Lisbon."

She stopped.

"The sale closes Friday," she said again, quietly. "Mr. Amory was selling this company to leave the country."

"With her," I said.

I was looking at Delaney.

"With her," Delaney said. "I thought so too."

Her face did something complicated.

"He told me you'd be taken care of. He said the money would cover a quiet divorce."

"He said you were tired of him anyway."

Dalton twisted in the guard's arms.

"Those are private! Those are stolen!"

"They were sent to me," Delaney said. "I'm the one who owns them."

The gray-haired woman set the phone down on the table, face up, where all three board members could see it.

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