The CEO Hired a Size 20 Fake Wife, Then Couldn't Keep His Hands Off Her novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Claire's Folder

My mother put a plate of pierogi in front of Claire Brennan and said, "Eat."

Claire looked at the plate.

She had come to Northeast Philly at six on Sunday evening.

She wore a cream coat and sunglasses and held a leather folder to her chest.

Now she sat at the kitchen table where I did my homework at nine, and she picked up a fork.

"I don't usually eat this much butter," she said.

"Nobody does," said my mother. "That's why it's good."

Declan sat across from her with his coat still on.

I had called him from the porch an hour earlier and told him to come.

He hadn't asked why.

Claire set the folder on the oilcloth and slid it toward me, not toward him.

"I opened Terrence's safe on Thursday," she said. "He thinks I don't know the combination. It's our sons' birthday."

"What's in it?" I asked.

"A term sheet with Harbourline."

"He's selling the docks?"

"He's selling the docks, and in the margin he wrote the number of people they won't keep. Twelve hundred."

She turned a page with a finger that wasn't quite steady.

"He told me he was fighting for those jobs. He said it at breakfast, with the twins at the table."

Declan took the folder.

He read the first page and his face went to stone.

"There's a line at the bottom," Claire said. "Under his signature."

I leaned over his arm.

Claire will not need to know until it closes.

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