I Fled the Wedding, the Obsessed CEO Lost His Sanity novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Receipts

I held up the first receipt so the whole room could see it.

"This is a gallery sale slip," I said. "It says the Wakefield Gallery sold a work called The Heron, and it names a price and a buyer."

I turned it over.

"It's signed by Daphne Wakefield, and it's dated six years ago."

Rhys came forward and took it from me.

He had stopped shaking.

"I'm Rhys Cochran," he said into the microphone. "I'm a lawyer, and I've been Daphne's friend for ten years. I expect to lose that tonight, and I'll swear to every word I say."

He lifted a folder.

"There are eleven receipts in here. Each one is signed by her. Each one matches a pencil study in this box, and a piece on your wall."

"This is absurd," Daphne said.

Her voice was still soft.

"If Cassia made these studies last week, how did Daphne's signed receipts get into a box that's been in my closet for six years?" Rhys asked the room.

Nobody answered.

"The eleventh receipt is the fox you've all read about this month."

A woman at a table near the front said, "That's Harvey Lowell's painting."

"Then he's a buyer she cheated, same as the rest of you," said Rhys. "The gallery has every buyer's address. Every one of you can ask for these dates."

He pulled out one more sheet.

"The framing shop keeps its books too. It will say the same thing to anyone who calls."

The first appraiser had gone the color of putty.

"Doctor," Clarence said from the front table, loud and dry, "I believe you said the paper was made recently. Would you like to tell the room which month?"

The man opened his mouth.

He closed it.

Daphne touched her pearls.

"It's his word against a stranger's," she said brightly. "Rhys is a friend of Cassia's now. Everyone knows he's been calling her."

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