The Home She Built With Someone Else novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Justine's Guarantee

Nigel did not wait for the board chair to answer him.

He stood, buttoned his jacket, and walked out of the boardroom with his lawyer hurrying behind him.

"Bring Ms. Corliss up," the board chair said. "She has been in my lobby since Friday."

They put us in a small conference room on thirty-four, and Gus went down for her himself.

Justine came in holding her cardboard box.

She saw me first, then Gus, and then she saw Margot standing at the window with her arms crossed.

"Who is this?" Justine asked.

"Margot Tornquist," Margot said. "I'm Nigel's wife."

Justine set the box on the table very slowly.

"The certificate," she said. "The cropped photo. That was you."

"That was me."

"I would have told you, you know. In the shower, with a phone. I said that to Nate on Friday."

"I know what you said," Margot said. "He told me. I didn't know you existed until March, and you didn't know I did until last week. We can be even on that much."

"And the rest?"

"Not the rest," Margot said.

Justine nodded once and did not argue.

Gus laid a thick packet in front of her.

"This came from the investors' lawyer an hour ago," he said. "Read page fourteen."

She read it with her lips moving.

I watched her find her own signature, and then find that there was no other.

"It's a personal guarantee," she said. "Joint and several. For all four million."

"Is Nigel's name on it anywhere?" Gus asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"He said it was a formality. He put little yellow flags where I was supposed to sign." Her voice thinned. "He said if I read it I'd panic."

"You didn't read it," I said.

"No."

She took her phone out of her bag and held it for a moment.

"I'm not asking anyone to forgive me," she said. "I'm giving you this because it's true."

She scrolled and passed it to me.

The first text was from Nigel, three weeks before the sales gallery.

Rename the shared folder to mine. Nate won't check. He always folds.

The second was a week later.

Just sign where the flags are. Don't read it, you'll spiral.

Gus held out his hand, and I gave him the phone.

"My secretary will copy these," he said. "Ms. Corliss, you'll sit with our lawyers this afternoon. They are very bored and very good."

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