This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Professional Courtesy

Fern came back up the stairs ten minutes later.

Mabel was still standing on her box in the ice-blue dress.

She didn't say anything in the sunroom.

She didn't say anything in the car, either, until they were past the last iron gate.

Then she told Fern everything.

Fern drove with both hands on the wheel and didn't interrupt once.

When Mabel finished, Fern pulled into a gas station, turned off the engine and made one phone call.

She spoke very softly.

Mabel only heard her say, "I want a name," and then, "I don't care what it costs you," and then nothing for a long time.

When Fern hung up, she sat for a moment with the phone in her lap.

"It went out again on Tuesday," she said. "Private, this time. One point two million."

"For me."

"For you. At the gala. A fall from the mezzanine, in front of everybody, so it looks like an accident with three hundred witnesses."

Fern started the car again.

"And somebody took it."

That night the whole family sat around the kitchen table again.

Nobody made jokes this time.

The third brother had the man's file on his laptop in twenty minutes.

He turned the screen around without a word.

Hank looked at it.

Then he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

"I know him," he said.

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