The Woman He Traded Is Now His Equal novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Her Name Is Natasha

I went down in my coat over the T-shirt Byron had left on my floor.

Ingrid Aspinwall stood alone in the lobby of my building, between the mailboxes and the broken radiator.

She wore her pearls and a camel coat, and her silver hair was perfect.

She had no driver, and she had come to Astoria by taxi.

I had never seen her without someone to carry her bag.

"Girl who does the flowers," she said, and stopped.

I waited.

"I'm told that's not right," she said.

"My name is Natasha Brennan."

"Natasha." She said it slowly, as if she wanted to get it right. "I'm sorry to come at this hour."

"What do you want, Mrs. Aspinwall?"

"I came to ask for my son."

"Ask what?"

"That you see him. That you let him come back to you, for a year, for an hour." Her voice was thin and held perfectly level. "He hasn't eaten since Tuesday. He sat in his office last night and wrote a letter and tore it up four times. He is not himself."

"He told me what he is."

"He is my son."

"I know," I said. "I met you at your table."

Her chin lifted.

"I offered you money. I've thought about it every day since."

"You offered a hundred thousand dollars and a cottage in Montauk, in front of your guests."

"I thought you were a girl who'd been kept for the money."

"I was a girl who was kept," I said. "You were right about that part."

Her face did not move.

I took my phone out of my coat pocket.

"Mrs. Aspinwall, you haven't read anything he did. He told you a story. You should have the pages."

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