The Stand-In Wife and His Only Obsession novel · Chapter 23 of 32
Chapter 23: The Boathouse
Nobody in the boardroom moved.
"He held my hands so hard my rings cut me," Gran said. "He kept saying the men on the phone would know if the police stayed."
"What men?" I said.
"Exactly." She looked at me. "There was only ever one voice on that phone. A machine voice. Aldous said 'the men' all week, as if he'd met them."
Lucas sat very still beside me.
"Your father wanted the FBI," she told him. "Aldous talked him out of it. I helped. I thought he was a frightened boy who loved his cousin."
She took off her reading glasses and folded them.
"I felt eighty-four today for the first time, Jules. I didn't care for it."
【GRANDMA. No. Don't you dare blame yourself.】
【She paid four million dollars for that boy. She did nothing wrong.】
Lucas stood.
He went to the window and looked down at Park Avenue, at the news vans still lined up along the curb.
"I want to go to the boathouse," he said.
His grandmother made a small sound.
"You've never gone back."
"I know."
"Darling. Why now?"
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Stand-In Wife and His Only Obsession are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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