My Husband's Brother Owns My Secret novel · Chapter 24 of 32
Chapter 24: The River Painting
Three hundred people turned around in their gold chairs.
The long wall of the lobby collection ran the whole back of the room under its little brass lights.
Thirty-one paintings.
Near the middle, under River, Wells Street, stood a woman in good boots.
She held up a soft yellow square of paper over her head.
"I painted that," the classmate said.
Her voice shook.
Then it didn't.
"I teach ninth-grade art in Pilsen. I sold that painting at our student sale eight years ago. Eight hundred dollars, cash. This is the receipt."
Nobody laughed this time.
I walked down the aisle toward her with the big envelope against my chest.
"River, Wells Street," I said. "The bank bought it on October twenty-third. Two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The wire is signed in green ink."
I stopped at the first row.
Nine board members sat in the first two rows, in the seats with their names on little cards.
I'd written their place cards for four years.
I took the first thin envelope out and handed it to the oldest of them, a man with a hearing aid.
"That's every wire for six years," I said. "Check the last page of each. Every wire has the same signature."
I handed out the second envelope.
The third.
"Half of every payment went to an account on LaSalle Street within a week. The account's in my husband's name."
The fourth.
The fifth.
The board members opened them in their laps.
"This is a divorce stunt," Graydon said behind me.
He'd come down off the platform.
His voice was still soft.
"My wife is upset and she's been living in a bowling alley. If there's a problem with the collection, it's our adviser's. Cate Ainslie misrepresented every piece. She fooled all of us. She fooled me."
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