Gilded Revenge: The Ex-Wife's Billion-Dollar Empire novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: First Name
Alden came to the penthouse at ten that night with three black binders under his arm.
The doorman had called up first.
Lucinda told him to send the man up, and then stood in the hall with her arms folded until the elevator opened.
"It's not public," she said.
"No."
"It's not an hour."
"I know." He held out the binders. "I'm not asking to stay. I came to give you these back."
She took them.
They were heavier than she remembered.
"You read them."
"All three. The last one twice."
"Then you've seen the thing you wanted to see."
"I haven't." His voice dropped. "I stopped at the last page, because I didn't think I had the right."
"And now?"
"Yesterday I lost my company. All I could think was that I wanted you to tell me what it says."
"Come in."
He stood in her living room, with the city behind him, and she sat on the arm of the sofa and opened the third binder to the end.
The paper had gone soft at the corner where she'd turned it too many times.
She held it out.
"Read it out loud."
He took the page.
"Day one thousand ninety-three," he read. "Tomorrow is our third anniversary."
His throat worked.
"A. spent the evening at the window, as he does. I watched him from the door."
He drew a breath.
"I have never once unpacked the bag I keep under the bed. The driver told me in Year One that I could leave any night I liked. The money was there. The papers were there. I didn't."
He read the next line more slowly.
"I want it written down: nobody kept me here. I stayed because I wanted to."
He stopped.
"Keep going."
"Tomorrow I will tell him my real name. I will tell him everything. If he says nothing, I will leave. If he says my name, I will stay."
The page shook in his hand.
"I filed that morning," he said.
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