Chapter 9: All-Staff

The email came at six the next morning, while I was standing in Dot's kitchen waiting for the kettle.

It was from the junior analyst who sat three desks from mine, the one with the newborn.

There was no message, only a video file and a single line.

"I never said anything. I'm sorry. I'm saying it now."

I sat down at the table and pressed play.

The picture was gray, from a camera high in a corner.

It was the sixth floor, at 9:41 on Monday night, with only the cleaning lights on.

A woman in a cream coat walked down the aisle to my desk, as sure of herself.

She tipped a paper cup of coffee over my folders.

She pushed strips of paper between my keys.

Then she took a tube from her pocket, uncapped it and drew a red X across my monitor, taking her time.

Her face was clear in the screen's glow.

It was Corinna, and she was smiling a little.

The kitchen door opened behind me, and Dr. Brodsky came in with a bag of eggs and a hospital badge clipped to his shirt.

"Dot said coffee was on," he said, and stopped.

"Come look."

He leaned over my shoulder and watched it through.

"That's your sister-in-law?"

"That's my husband's first love, and she isn't any relation to me."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Brought His First Love Home Again, So I Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.