Chapter 13: Read It Aloud

Nobody in the showroom said a word.

Twenty-three men and their wives stood in the half dark with paper plates still in their hands.

Boone walked across the shop floor toward us, slowly, so they could all watch him do it.

"I came back for my reading glasses," he said. "And I find my wife on her knees at my safe with a man who's done time."

"I wasn't on my knees," I said.

"Sheriff's on his way." He didn't look at the phone in his hand. "Breaking and entering, Annie. Theft. In your condition, that's a shame."

"The prospect is filming," the vice president said quietly.

"Good," Boone said. "Let him."

"Good," I said, and my voice came out steadier than my knees.

I unbuttoned my father's pocket.

I took out the top envelope and held it up where the fluorescent light hit it.

"This is addressed to me," I said. "It's been in your floor safe for fifteen years, and I'm going to read it."

"Annie."

"Fifteen years, Boone. You can wait three minutes."

Rafe stood beside me with his arms at his sides and did not say a word.

I slid my thumbnail under the flap.

The paper inside was thin, lined and soft at the fold.

My hands were shaking, so I read it slowly.

"Annie. I don't know if this will reach you."

A woman near the front put down her plate.

"Boone called me and said you picked him. He said you were scared of my temper and wanted a clean break."

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