My Marriage Was Their Bet novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: What He Said in the Hall

I woke up at dawn in his bed with his arm across my waist and the group chat still in my head.

I slid out from under his arm, found his sweatshirt and sat on the edge of the mattress.

"You're awake," Samson said behind me.

"Who are the nine women in your phone, Samson?"

He did not pretend not to understand.

He sat up, pulled on a pair of trousers and sat across from me with his elbows on his knees.

"I said I'd tell you everything."

"Then start."

"Ten years ago, at your wedding dinner, Bancroft stood up with a glass and told all of us the same thing."

His voice was level, and I made myself listen to it.

"He said Daphne Hollis would never leave him. Not if he cheated, not if he humiliated her, not if he did every cruel thing a man can do. He said you were too loyal. He said he could prove it."

"And everyone laughed."

"Everyone raised their glass," Samson said. "I didn't. I said you would leave the first time he went too far, and that I'd put my half of the firm on it."

"On a napkin."

"On a napkin. He wrote the terms and every man signed as a witness. I still have it."

I looked at my hands.

"So you took the other side," I said. "You bet I'd leave."

"I bet you'd be free."

"It's the same thing."

"It isn't," he said. "But I understand why it looks the same."

"Why were you in the hall?"

"Because the first year, Bancroft brought a girl home and told her you'd asked for her." His jaw tightened. "She was twenty-four. She believed him, and she hated you before she'd met you. I took her coat and told her the truth."

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend