The CEO's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Tape

The car pulled out onto the wet street, and Agnes did not say a word until the hotel was behind us.

Her driver took us in a slow circle around the block.

"I've known for five years," Agnes said. "Stanford told me the week the cashier's check cleared."

"You let me sit at your table."

"I did."

"You gave me your ring."

"I gave you my ring because I was too ashamed to look at you without giving you something," she said. "Open it."

I took the cream envelope.

The coffee ring had soaked into the paper, and the fold was soft as cloth.

Inside lay the police report, with two pages of my parents' names typed in capitals.

There was a repair bill from a body shop, for a silver sedan, paid in cash.

There was a license plate number written in pencil on a lawyer's notepad.

I looked at it for a long time.

Under it was a small black cassette, the kind that fits in a pocket recorder.

"Vanessa's father kept a machine in his office," Agnes said. "He taped every client. He said it was for his own protection."

"What's on it?"

"Dalton. A year after. I couldn't listen to the end."

Agnes's driver passed a phone-sized player back over the seat without being asked.

I put in the cassette.

It hissed.

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