Life after Goodbye novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Tape

Ansel's office was on the top floor of Dorsey Supply, with a window that looked down the river to the warehouses.

I went on Thursday at lunchtime, when the floor was empty.

He sat behind the big desk with a salad and a spreadsheet and looked up at me over his glasses.

"You never come here," he said. "What's wrong?"

"I need you to hear something."

I had cut the recording on my laptop the night before.

I had taken out every word that said pregnant.

I had kept only what a brother could hear without learning my secret.

I set my old phone on his desk and pressed play.

Chelsea's voice filled the room, small and clear.

"I know the old man said the first grandchild. If it goes into the trust, we lose everything we planned. I won't let it."

Ansel frowned.

"It won't see his birthday. It can't live, Mama."

I stopped the recording.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"From the heating vent in my guest room."

"You recorded her?"

"Ansel, she's talking about something that can't live. In the trust. By Dad's birthday."

He set down his fork very slowly.

"Calla, that is a girl on the phone with her mother."

"She said we lose everything we planned."

"About what? A TV show? A plant?" He took off his glasses and pressed his fingers to his eyes. "You don't know what that is. You're hearing the worst in it."

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