The Contract Wife novel · Chapter 4 of 5

Chapter 4: Separate Rooms

The elevator opens straight into his home.

There's no hallway and no door, just a floor of pale stone and a wall of glass.

Central Park lies below it, bare and white and enormous.

"Ma'am," Marcus says. "Your room is this way."

He walks ahead of me with my duffel bag, which he took from my hands without asking.

Two doors face each other across a wide hall.

He opens the left one.

The bed is made with gray linen, and a lamp is already on.

The closet door stands open.

My scrubs hang inside it.

Six sets, navy, pressed, in a row.

Under them are my work clogs, the ones with the cracked left heel.

"How did you get these?" I ask.

"Mr. Kastar had them collected from your apartment this morning."

"He went into my apartment."

"Not himself," Marcus says.

He sets the bag on the bench and clears his throat.

"The right door is his. The study is at the end. He keeps that locked."

"Why are you telling me that?"

"So you don't walk in on him."

He says it kindly.

He's the first person today who has.

"Thank you, Marcus."

"Dinner is at eight. He'll want you ready by seven-thirty."

"He'll want."

Marcus almost smiles.

Then he goes, and I stand in a stranger's guest room with my work shoes.

I take off my badge and put it on the nightstand.

I don't sit down. If I sit, I'll sleep.

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