My Marriage Was Their Bet novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Partners

Friday morning Bancroft walked me into the Stockbridge MacKinnon boardroom by the hand.

"My wife sits with me today," he told the receptionist. "She's had a hard month, and I want her close."

The receptionist smiled at me with pity.

I smiled back.

Six partners sat around the long glass table.

Three of them had put money in Bancroft's ledger.

I had poured their coffee in his study that week.

Samson was already in his chair at the far end.

He did not look at me, and I didn't look at him.

Bancroft pulled out the seat beside his own and settled me into it.

"Thank you all," he said. "Thank you for coming on short notice."

The oldest partner cleared his throat.

"Bancroft has a motion," he said. "It concerns Samson."

"I know what it concerns," Samson said.

"Then let me say it kindly," Bancroft said, and put his hand over mine on the table.

His palm was warm and dry.

"Samson and I have been friends since we were nineteen," he said. "That's why this hurts."

"Say it."

"My wife left our home ten days ago, in the middle of what I can only call a breakdown."

The partners looked at me.

I kept my face still.

"She was found in a diner, shaking, saying things that weren't true," Bancroft said.

"She spent two nights at Samson's flat."

"At his invitation," said the youngest partner, who had never liked Samson.

"At his invitation. A vulnerable woman, alone, in the home of the man who handles her husband's money."

"She came to me," Samson said.

"Did she?"

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