Chapter 21: The Proxy

Rafe's POV

The bus stop on the old campus looked smaller than it had when I was twenty-three.

It had the same bench, the same shelter with the cracked roof.

It had a woman sitting under the same streetlight with a duffel bag between her feet.

Justine and I got out of the car together.

"Stay here a second," I said.

"Why?"

"I want to walk in on my own."

She understood.

She held on to my sleeve for one breath and let go.

I crossed the wet pavement toward the light.

It buzzed above the bench, yellow and steady.

I stopped directly under it, next to the stranger who had my wife's face, and I did not look up.

"Thank you for calling," I said.

She flinched at my voice.

"I'm sorry. I took his money. I thought it was a prank."

"I know."

"He said my sister would lose her job at your hotel."

"Your sister works at the Holloway Grand?"

"Housekeeping. Eleven years."

I took out my phone and dialed the night manager.

"This is Rafe Holloway. I want the housekeeping file for a woman whose sister is standing next to me."

I looked at the stranger.

"I don't have the name. You'll find it by the end of this call."

I held the phone out to the woman.

She said her sister's name in a whisper.

"Put it in writing," I told the manager.

"Nobody in this company touches her job without my signature on the paper. Tonight, by email."

I hung up.

"That's done," I said.

The woman stared at me.

"Just like that?"

"I'm the president. For now."

Justine had come up behind me.

She sat down on the bench beside the woman and took her hand.

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