My Husband Cheated With My Best Friend, So I Took Them Both novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Seven to One

Declan's POV

I was on the interstate before the call ended.

Juliet had stood in the driveway with her coat open.

"Say it in your words," she had told me.

That was all I took with me. It was enough to drive ninety minutes on.

The Quincy Foundation board met in the fourth-floor room of the Burlington hospital, under a portrait of my father.

Nine people sat around a long table. My mother sat at the head, in the chair she had held for eleven years.

She saw me in the doorway and did not even look surprised.

"Declan. You're late, and you're not on the agenda."

"I have a seat on this board," I said. "I'd like to use it."

"Then sit."

"I'll stand."

Nobody in the room moved. A woman at the end set down her pen.

My mouth was dry. I thought of all the times I had nodded at that table because nodding was easier.

"You called Roz's employer this morning," I said. "Now my wife's name is bait, and my loan is a leash. You've had a hand on every part of my life."

"I've done what a mother does," said Philippa.

"You've done what a landlord does." My voice was steadier than I expected. "Everything I have, you've made sure you could take back."

"This is a family matter."

"You made it a board matter when you used the foundation's family fund as a leash on me."

I looked down the table. "So here it is, in front of all of you."

"No," I said to my mother. "I won't divorce my wife. I won't take your money. And you will not touch Rosalind Gilmore's job, or her name, or anyone else in my life."

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