The Twin Missing From the Family Photo novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Raw Footage

Talbot's POV

By nine on Monday morning, the clip had four million views, and my board chair wanted a meeting.

He was a man in his sixties with a cardigan and a reputation for patience, and he owned twenty percent of my company.

He sat at the head of my steel table and laid his tablet flat.

"Talbot, I'm not here about her, I'm here about the brand," he said. "We sell trust. Every outlet in the country has that girl's face next to our logo."

Behind him, on the wall, was a page Carrie Unsworth had drawn on Thursday.

A girl in a gray sweatshirt sat on a log and looked at the light.

I looked at it for a second longer than I needed to.

"She's been here five days," I said.

"Which is why it's the cheapest moment to let her go." He said it kindly. "A medical leave. A quiet severance. She'll be taken care of."

"Medical leave from what?"

"Her family says she isn't well."

"Her family said she wasn't well in a lobby, in front of nine of my employees, with a bunch of flowers." I kept my voice level. "Then he grabbed her by the wrist."

"That's not what the video shows."

"The video you're holding has been cut to thirty seconds."

I nodded to the receptionist, who was sitting at the end of the table in her best blouse, holding her phone in both hands.

She had come to me before eight.

"I was filming the lobby," she had said, and her chin shook. "I film everything. My mother had a stroke last year, and she taught me to keep proof."

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