I Married a Stranger to Ruin Them novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: Glass

"There won't be a photo," I said.

"Everybody loves a baby, Alice." Ian stood and buttoned his jacket. "The board will love one most of all."

His lawyer didn't look at me as they left.

My lawyer closed her folder very gently.

"Well," she said. "Now we know what he wants."

Matt was parked exactly where he'd said, eating a gas-station sandwich.

I got in and slammed the door.

"He wants the baby for the press," I said. "Like a new logo."

Matt put the sandwich down.

He looked up at the thirty-first floor for a long moment.

"You want me to go up there?" he asked.

"And do what?"

"Stand near him again. It worked last time."

I laughed, and then I put my head against the cold window and didn't say anything for an hour.

He drove the whole way home without the radio on, so I could think.

On Monday I asked him to teach me to gather glass.

"Why?" he said.

"Because I've bought glass from this building for six years and I don't know how you make it."

"It's hot."

"I've noticed."

"You're on light duty."

"I'm not asking to lift anything. I'm asking to hold a stick."

"It's called a pipe."

"Then teach me the words, too."

He gave me his spare leather apron, which hung to my shins.

He gave me gloves and safety glasses and made me tie my hair back twice.

Then he stood me in front of the furnace.

The heat was like opening an oven with my whole body.

Inside, the glass sat in its crucible, glowing.

"Pipe goes in slow," he said. "Tip just under the surface. Then you turn. Always turn. You stop turning, it drips, and then it's on the floor and Carrie yells at both of us."

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