Chapter 11: What Conrad Wants

I picked up the folder.

It was lighter than I expected, and the edges were soft from being handled.

Ansel came back from the bathroom with a towel over his shoulder, saw it in my hand, and stopped.

"That has my name on it," I said.

"Yes."

"Is it about the company?"

"It's about you. It's the rest of what I haven't told you."

"Then I'm reading it."

"Jo."

He didn't move toward me.

"You can. I won't take it back. But the board meets at ten on Monday, and Roland has Lila with him."

"I know."

"If you read it tonight, you'll walk out of here, and you'll have every right to. And your sister will be in that room alone."

I held the folder against my chest.

"Give me until after the meeting," he said.

"Monday night I'll put it on the table and sit across from you while you read every page."

"I won't say a word until you ask."

"Why should I wait?"

"Because you'll want a clear head when you face Roland, and after you read it, you won't have one."

I was a lawyer.

I knew a man buying time when I saw one.

I also knew what it cost him to say it out loud.

"Monday night," I said. "If it isn't open on this table by ten that night, I'm gone. With Lila. And you can keep your napkin."

"Agreed."

I put the folder back on its shelf.

My hands were not quite steady.

The boardroom of Amesbury Freight was on the thirty-first floor, with a view of the river and a table that seated twenty.

Roland sat at the head of it in a navy suit.

Lila sat on his right, hands folded, looking small.

Conrad stood at the foot of the table with a velvet box in his hand.

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