Chapter 15: The Rosewood Desk

Preston was in the lobby at nine in the morning, standing where the front desk would be.

He was still in last night's tux, with his tie in his pocket.

A guard had let him in because he gave his name and nothing else.

Elias and I came down together in the construction elevator.

Preston looked at us, at my hair, at the way Elias held the door, and he understood all of it in one glance.

"I'm not here to fight," he said.

"Then you can have coffee," Elias said. "The cart outside is open."

We stood on the Wabash sidewalk in the cold, three people holding paper cups.

Preston had not slept.

He told us anyway, and he told it straight to me.

"My mother has a rosewood desk in the sitting room at Lake Forest," he said.

"It has a drawer on the right side with a brass lock."

"I know the desk," I said.

I had sat across from it at brunch with a plate of fruit.

"Eight years ago, on a Sunday, I went in there to borrow a pen," Preston said.

"My mother was at that drawer with a man."

"What man?"

"Our lawyer then. She had a folder open and was reading something to him, and she laughed."

"Did you see the name?"

"There was a tab on it, in her handwriting. She shut the drawer when she saw me."

He swallowed.

"It started with an F, and it was long."

"Farrington," Elias said.

"I think so." He looked at me. "I told myself I made it up. Then I watched the video of your card."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Foolish Husband's Regret Comes Late from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.