The One Who Waited novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Worth Nothing

His fingers dug into my arm through my dress.

For fifteen years that grip had steered me out of parties.

"Let go of me, Derek."

"Did you hear me? Zero. You just set a hundred and eighty million dollars on fire to embarrass me."

A big hand came down over his wrist.

It didn't squeeze. It just rested there, heavy as a sandbag.

"She asked you to let go," Luke said.

Derek looked up at him.

Luke was a head taller and a lot wider, and he was perfectly calm.

Derek let go.

I took my coat off the counter and put it on myself.

Then I turned around.

"They were worth nothing when I gave them to you, too," I said.

"It was a house. It had a porch swing. You never once asked what it looked like."

His mouth opened.

I walked out onto Park Avenue with my husband and my best friend, and he stood there alone holding his coat ticket.

In the morning my paper fortune was gone.

STEADY PULLS IPO HOURS BEFORE PRICING, the papers said. FOUNDER'S EX REVEALS FAKE USERS.

The board met at eight.

I went in my good black coat and my wedding ring and sat at the table.

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