The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away novel · Chapter 25 of 32
Chapter 25: Sold
For a second nobody moved.
Then three hundred folding chairs scraped at once.
Dex grabbed the podium with both hands.
"That's a lie. She's guessing. She rigged the pour."
"I poured it," the chair said into her own microphone. "Myself. Behind that curtain."
"Then you're in on it."
The chair took off her reading glasses.
"Mr. Arnott," she said. "Sit down."
He didn't sit.
At the back of the room, a man in a clean shirt pushed off the wall.
The cellar master walked down the center aisle with his folder.
He stopped at the foot of the stage and looked up at me.
"Now?" he said.
"Now."
"I'm the cellar master at Arnott. Seven years." He held up the folder. "On Wednesday Mr. Arnott told me to fill that auction barrel from tank seven. Tank seven is bulk. Fresno County. He told me to put oak chips in it."
He opened the folder.
"Bills of lading. He signed for every one." He laid them on the edge of the stage. "Not one has her name on it. She was gone by then. He threw her out."
From the back, the kid called out, red to the ears.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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