Chapter 10: Everybody Out

"I said out," Warren said.

Graham didn't move from the leather chair.

"No," he said.

Warren crossed the den in three strides and took a handful of Graham's shirt and pulled him upright.

The chair rolled backward and hit the wall.

"Warren!" Owen was on his feet.

"Stay out of it."

"You're going to put him through the plaster."

"I might."

Graham didn't fight him.

He hung there in Warren's fist with his collar bunched and his eyes bright, and he smiled.

"There he is," he said. "Twenty years, and I've never seen you lose your temper once."

"You went past what we agreed."

"We agreed I'd say it. She walked in. She did the rest herself."

"You put your hands on her at my pool."

"She told me to."

"What agreement?" I said.

All four of them froze.

I'd stood up from my grandfather's chair, and I was walking around the table.

"What did you agree? Warren, what did the four of you agree?"

Nobody answered.

Graham looked at the floor.

Caleb looked at the window.

Warren let go of Graham's shirt.

"It doesn't matter," he said, and his voice was shaking.

"It matters to me."

"It's between me and them."

"It's about me."

"It was never meant to be," Warren said, and then he shut his mouth hard, as if he'd bitten something.

Graham's head came up.

"Warren," he said carefully. "If you want to stop this right now, tell her."

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