He Got Engaged During My Labor, So I Chose His Rival novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Off the Record

The wife badge still scanned.

I held it to the reader at the door of the Stampede Club, the green light came on, and the door opened for Mrs. Holloway.

I walked in carrying a purse, a diaper bag and a tape player that Lyle had labeled PLAYS CASSETTES. DO NOT EAT.

Zach stayed in the truck outside with Gus.

Lyle had slipped an old phone into the side pocket of the diaper bag, screen down.

I had not asked him to, and I had not stopped him.

The agent had asked me to come alone.

He sat at a corner table of the private room with a steak and a napkin on his knee, and he did not stand.

"Mrs. Holloway," he said. "You look rested."

"I'm not rested," I said. "I have an infant in a truck."

"I'm told you wanted to discuss settlement."

I sat down and set the tape player on the tablecloth between the bread basket and his water.

"Is that a Walkman?"

"It's evidence," I said. "Lyle labeled it."

I pressed play.

The tape hissed for a long time.

Then a woman's voice said, brightly, "Hello, this is the Gretna Fourth-Graders' Bake Sale, calling for Mrs. Sorenson about the pie order."

The agent raised an eyebrow.

The tape hissed.

"Hello, Mrs. Sorenson, it's the bake sale again. We need to know whether it's two pies or three."

"Is this a joke?" he said.

"It's a farmhouse," I said.

A third voice came on, a man's, smooth and clipped.

"Sorenson, it's me. I hear you're thinking of fighting the trade. Don't. If you do, a story gets out about you and a bottle at practice, and the story gets worse every week you fight. I'm doing you a favor. Call me from the airport."

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