A Night With A Stranger novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: A Better Answer

Margaret had reserved a table by the window on the top floor of the Grand, with the lake spread out silver below.

She was already seated when I came in.

She wore a navy suit and her pearls again, and she did not rise.

"Miss Keane."

"Mrs. Brodsky."

"You came alone."

"You asked."

"I did." She nodded at the chair. "Sit. I've ordered the sole. If you dislike fish, there is a menu."

"Fish is fine."

The waiter poured water and went away.

For a minute Margaret studied the tablecloth.

Then she reached into her handbag and set something on the linen between us.

It was a sheet of paper, torn in two and mended on the back with clear tape.

"The check," I said.

"My son carried it in his breast pocket for three weeks. He has never once admitted it." Her mouth flattened. "I had it taped last night. I thought you might wish to burn it. Or frame it."

I picked it up.

The tape made a neat straight seam down the middle of fifty thousand dollars.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Because I do not know how to say what I must say, so I am doing it badly, with an object." She lifted her eyes. "I was wrong about you."

I said nothing.

"I looked at you in my boardroom and I saw a woman from a basement who had found a way in. I saw every woman my husband ever kept in an apartment, and I decided to pay you before you cost me." Her voice was level, and her knuckles were white on the stem of her glass. "You did not want a cent. You wanted the man who drugged you in a cage."

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