The Men Who Walked Out novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Cafeteria

Dad's stent check was at ten on Saturday, on the third floor of the same hospital.

Elliot walked him in with a hand under his elbow, and I went down to the cafeteria for tea.

I was stirring it at a table by the window and thinking, for the third time that morning, about Elliot's heartbeat under my hand.

Then Brent sat down across from me.

He wore a camel coat I had never seen, and he set a small velvet box on the table between us.

"Daph," he said. "You look tired."

"Brent."

"I've been calling for ten days."

"I know. Every one."

He pushed the box an inch toward me.

I took my phone out of my pocket, opened the voice memo and laid it on the table beside my tea with the red dot showing.

He didn't notice, or he thought it was a clock.

"Your mother and I talked last night," he said. "She's willing to be generous."

"Is she."

"The cards come back today. The lab funding comes back Monday. You come back as deputy to Gordon, at your old salary plus the director bump."

"And the ring?"

"The ring is the ring." He opened the box, and the diamond sat in its slot. "I never wanted to lose it."

"What does she want?"

"Nothing unreasonable. You sign a resolution on Monday week and stand beside Gordon at the board meeting."

"The one that makes him my father."

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