He Married His Hometown Neighbor, Then Begged for a Second Chance novel · Chapter 33 of 40

Chapter 33: Every's Move

Every Red came up the bakery stairs at ten at night, five days before the Summit, in a long grey coat and flat shoes.

She had never been to the room.

She stood in the doorway with a potted plant in her arms and looked at the sloped ceiling, the radiator and the four laptops.

"It's smaller than I pictured," she said.

"It's warm," said the tall engineer, without turning round. "That's a lot, in this city."

"Would you give us the room, please?"

The engineer looked at Evan.

Evan nodded.

The three engineers filed out with their coats, and the boy with the notebook stopped on the landing and did not go down.

"I'm all right," Evan called.

The boy went.

Every set the plant on the folding table.

It was a small white orchid, in a pot of dark glass.

"A housewarming," she said.

"You told your lawyers to suspend my license."

"I told them to protect the firm."

"Against what?"

"Against a man who tells a courthouse he has a good idea who's behind a photograph." She smiled. "I've been wondering what the idea was."

"You know what it was."

"I'd like to hear you say it."

"You called a fund and told them I wasn't safe to fund. You paid a man to sit outside a café. You had the notice served the minute I filed."

"All true, as it happens."

He looked at her.

It was very odd to see a woman admit to everything, and not look afraid.

She walked to the window and folded her hands behind her.

"I'll tell you what I'm offering," she said. "I'll withdraw the notice. I'll lift the suspension, and the lawsuit I was going to bring, and I'll print a retraction in the Gazette, in my own name. You can have the patent back whole.

"You'll come home to the thirtieth floor, and you'll run it. Co-founder. Twenty percent."

"No."

"You haven't heard the rest."

"I know what the rest is."

"I'm not threatening you." She turned. Her face was open, and warm, and very tired. "I'm telling you what the world is going to do to you. Ross will drop you in a year. They always do. He'll tire of being good. And the day after, there'll be a woman in the next office who hands you your tea without sugar and never asks you why you carry two phones."

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