Regret is the Punishment novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Parking Structure

"Get away from my car," I said.

"It's your sister's car."

"Get away from it anyway."

He pushed off the pillar and came a step closer.

Up close he smelled stale.

"Margo froze the accounts," he said. "She changed the locks on the house."

"She's calling the board together to vote me out of the company."

"I'm sorry to hear it."

"No, you're not. You did this."

"You did this, Cyril."

His jaw worked.

"I need you to sign something."

He took a folded page out of his back pocket.

It was a new page, on the same lawyer's letterhead.

"This says you pursued me," he said. "That I tried to end it and you wouldn't let me."

"It says the text was a stupid joke between us, and you took it out of context."

"That is a lie."

"It's a statement. My lawyer says if you sign it, Margo can't use the text in front of the board."

"And what do I get?"

"Fifty thousand dollars."

I almost laughed.

"My daughter is upstairs with burns on a quarter of her body, and you're offering me money to say you didn't tell me to stay."

"I'm offering you a way to land on your feet."

"No."

He put the page away.

His whole expression changed.

The easy charm drained out, and what stood under it was cold and frightened.

"Then give me the phone," he said.

"What?"

"The phone. Give it to me. Unlock it and delete the text, and I'll leave you alone."

"Absolutely not."

He lunged.

He grabbed my wrist in his left hand, hard, and reached for my cardigan pocket with his right.

I twisted and drove my knee up.

It caught his thigh and not what I wanted, and he swore and wrenched my arm behind my back.

Pain shot to my shoulder.

"Let go of me!"

"Give me the damn phone, Sue, you stupid"

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