My Bride Chose Her Publicity Stunt novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Two Million
The town car took us to Meridian Records, forty floors up, and Maura rode the whole way with her hands flat on her knees.
"Wayne," she said, as the elevator opened. "Before you go in, I need to tell you something."
"After," I said.
"It can't wait."
"You said soon. It can be soon after I've heard what he wants."
She closed her mouth.
I saw her swallow it, and I walked out of the elevator without looking back.
The receptionist took me past a glass wall into a boardroom with a table as long as a bowling lane.
Eight people in dark suits sat around it, and I knew none of them.
The gray-haired man in the navy blazer sat at the head, with his hands folded.
Seven years ago he had sat at a glass table eating nothing, and told two kids how to hide a love story from the world.
"Mr. Burdick," he said. "Sit down."
"I'll stand."
"As you like."
He nodded at the woman beside him, and she slid a leather folder down the table until it stopped in front of me.
"That is a check for two million dollars," the head of Meridian said. "It also holds a nondisclosure agreement, a release, and a copy of every file you took from Ms. Montague's house."
"I took nothing from her house."
"Then it will be easy to sign."
I did not open the folder.
"Lena doesn't know I'm here," he said. "She would stop me. She thinks a quiet man in a gray suit can be bought for fifty thousand."
"Is that what you think?"
"I think you can be bought for two million." He shrugged. "Everybody has a number. I'm paying yours four times over."
A man at the far end of the table cleared his throat.
"Chairman," he said, "we should discuss this in private."
"We discuss it here," the head said, "so no one in this room can say later that they didn't hear it."
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