Kiss Me One Last Time novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Offer

Hollister Surgical Supply took up four floors of a glass tower on Liberty Avenue.

I had not been inside in a year.

The receptionist stood up when she saw me, then sat down again.

She seemed unsure what a boss's wife looked like with shadows under her eyes.

"Mrs. Hollister," she said. "He's in a meeting."

"I'll wait in his office."

"He asked not to be..."

I kept walking.

His office was on the corner of the top floor, walled in glass on two sides.

The sales team sat at desks on the other side of the glass, and I knew every one of them by sight.

They went still as I opened the door.

Finley stood at the window with his back to me and a phone to his ear.

"I'll call you back," he said, and ended the call.

He turned.

He had shaved and changed his shirt, but his eyes were red.

"I thought you'd be at Lester's until you ran out of dignity," he said.

"I have plenty."

"You came for money."

"I came for the deed."

He didn't blink.

I had expected him to deny it.

Instead he sat on the edge of his desk and folded his arms.

"Lester talks too much," he said.

"You bought my mother's house."

"I bought a house Roberta was selling. She needed cash for Sabrina's care."

"You didn't tell me."

"You didn't ask."

"It was never hers to sell."

"It was in her name, Suzette. I checked. It was a clean sale."

"I was nineteen."

"And you signed it."

Behind him, through the glass, a young man in a blue shirt had stopped typing.

Two women at the copier stood with their hands still on the paper.

I felt the whole floor listening.

I almost lowered my voice.

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