The Necklace They Gave Me Last novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Study

Dermot's POV

I told Susannah I was going to the office.

She was asleep with one hand under her cheek, and she did not wake when I kissed her hair.

It was the first lie I had told her in three years, and I hated it.

I drove to the estate instead.

Alastair was in the hospital, Dorian was at a dinner in the city with two board members, and Pauline had gone to bed early, according to the night housekeeper.

I had grown up in that house.

I had a key to every door in it, and nobody had ever thought to take them back.

I let myself in through the kitchen and went up the back stairs in my socks.

The study smelled like cigars and old leather.

The founder's glass case stood against the far wall, empty.

I had walked past that case for fifteen years without ever asking why Alastair kept a light on in it.

I put on the desk lamp and opened the top drawer.

Nothing but pens.

The second drawer held checkbooks and a pair of reading glasses.

The bottom drawer on the left was locked.

I had learned to open that kind of lock at fifteen, in a house I did not belong to.

All it took was a bent paper clip and a lot of time alone.

It gave in under a minute.

There was a leather folder inside, and a stack of cream paper tied with a rubber band.

I picked up the paper first.

The top sheet was a page of handwriting practice.

It said "Dermot" in small, round, neat letters, over and over and over, and then "Last night was a mistake," and then "Don't look for me."

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