Schemes Come to Naught novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: Rain
It was raining by the time the room emptied.
Valeria's mother had left in her son's car.
The velvet box stayed on the tablecloth, and Carmen put it in her apron pocket without a word.
The staff went out in twos.
Ben shook my hand, hard, and said nothing at all.
I stood alone in the doorway of the private room, in a suit I had put on to be proud in.
In my hand was a stapled sale agreement I could not undo.
"Get in the car," Ines said.
She was beside me with her keys in her hand and her coat over her arm.
"I should go to the office. I should call a lawyer."
"You should get in the car."
I got in.
Her apartment was on the second floor of an old brick building on Neil Avenue.
I had never been inside it.
She had signed the lease in September, after I asked for the divorce, and I had never asked where she lived.
It was small and warm.
There were books stacked on the floor, a green couch, and the framed photograph of her father on the shelf.
She hung her coat on a hook and turned the lock.
The rain ran down the window.
"Ines..."
"I have terms," she said.
I stopped.
"Tonight there are no apologies. You said all of them already, and I accepted the one that mattered. Tonight there's no Valeria, no MacAvoy, no money. Say yes."
"Yes."
"Tonight, rule three is off."
My mouth was dry.
"Suspended?" I said.
"Suspended. Tomorrow I'll decide whether to put it back." She walked up to me and took hold of my tie. "And tonight you do what I tell you."
I looked at her hand on my tie.
"All of it?"
"You've been giving the orders for ten years. Take them for one night."
She pulled the knot loose, slowly, and slid the tie out of my collar.
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