The Hidden Goddess Who Made Him Beg novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Dinner at the Club

The Somerset Club had stood on Beacon Street since before my grandmother was born.

Its members were old men in dark suits who stopped talking when I walked in.

I wore black, and Hester's pearls, and nothing else I owned.

Leopold Bulfinch rose from a table by the window and pulled out my chair himself.

"Miss Orme. I'm glad you came."

"I came for the photograph."

"Of course." He smiled, and sat, and the waiter appeared and vanished without a word. "You'll have the sole. It's the only honest thing on the menu."

A bandage covered the palm he had cut on the glass.

He did not mention it.

"You've spent two years in my son's office," he said pleasantly. "You've been in my study. I assume you've copied what you wanted."

My pulse jumped, but I kept my hands in my lap.

"I'm not here to confess."

"I'm not asking you to. I'm telling you I'm not angry." He lifted his glass. "Admiration is the word. Anselm would have liked you."

"Don't say his name to me."

"He was my partner for eleven years."

"And you cut him out of the firm."

"I did a great many things in 2005." He set the glass down. "I want to make you an offer, and I'd like you to hear all of it before you throw something."

"Go on."

"Ninety million dollars. For your grandmother's thirty-four percent."

I did not let my face move.

"You know about the Trust," I said.

"The Beacon Trust has been quietly buying my stock for twenty years. Did you think I was blind?" He leaned back. "Ninety million, tonight, in return for a quiet transfer and your word you'll leave my son alone."

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