His 47 Seconds of Silence Cost Him Everything novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Family First

Ritter Realty was in a brick storefront on Main Street with FAMILY FIRST painted on the glass in white script.

I'd painted it.

Three years ago, the week before our wedding, on a stepladder with a stencil.

On Friday morning I walked in at ten, past the receptionist, with a manila envelope under my arm.

Cory's six agents were at their desks in the open office.

Every one of them looked up.

Every one of them had seen the cafeteria video by now. Somebody had filmed it on a phone and it was everywhere, the room counting out loud.

Cory came out of his glass office with his reading glasses on his head.

"Ren. Hey. Let's talk in here."

"Out here is fine."

He glanced at the agents. "Babe."

"Stacy told me to ask you something," I said. "So I'm asking. Why didn't you say no?"

He laughed and spread his hands. "I told you. I was playing along."

"With what?"

"With the bit. With the show. She told me at the field, right before, she said just go with it, it'll be funny, Ren's a good sport." He shook his head at the agents like we were all in on the same joke. "It was dumb. I admit it was dumb."

"She told you at the field."

"Right before."

He didn't blink.

That was how I knew he'd practiced it.

"Okay," I said.

"Look." He came closer and lowered his voice. "I've been thinking. Memorial Day. Mom's doing the cookout like always. What if we renewed our vows? Right there in the backyard. Just family. I'll tell Stacy I'm done being on her channel. No more videos. Clean slate."

Behind him, one of the agents was very carefully not typing.

"That's what you've been thinking," I said.

"It'd be nice. It'd show everybody."

"Show them what?"

"That we're good." He smiled. "Family first."

I held out the envelope.

He took it before he understood what it was.

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