MY MAID OF HONOR BRAZENLY CLAIMED MY GROOM GOT HER PREGNANT—THEN HIS MOTHER ASKED WHO PAID FOR ROOM 614

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Chapter 8

THEME:
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Grant.

Reed made a sound I had never heard from him, a breath that seemed to stop halfway out.

The technician continued the recording. Grant approached room 614, checked his phone, and waited while Avery emerged from the opposite end of the hallway.

They spoke briefly. She stepped back, repositioned her phone, and then walked toward him again.

This time he turned his face away.

They had rehearsed the entrance.

No one in the office spoke for several seconds.

The recording's time was 10:14 p.m. Two minutes earlier, Reed had been holding hospital coffee while his mother photographed him.

The technician checked the archived recording against the system's retained time information and exported the relevant sequence. Linnea asked for the booking documents to be retained with it.

I had wanted evidence, and now I had it. Relief still hurt.

Reed sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the carpet.

"He watched me ask you to marry me," he said.

I remembered Grant clapping at our engagement dinner. I remembered Avery volunteering to organize the flowers.

For months, they had stood close enough to know exactly where to strike.

Marjorie reached toward Reed, then stopped before touching him.

"May I?"

He nodded, and she rested her hand on his shoulder.

Linnea asked whether we wanted a break. I said yes, and Reed and I went outside to the small courtyard behind the kitchen.

The breakfast staff were clearing trays. Somewhere beyond the building, somebody was starting a lawn mower.

The ordinary sounds felt almost insulting.

"I believe you about that night," I told him.

He looked at me with such naked hope that I had to look away for a moment.

"That doesn't mean I can walk into a ceremony this afternoon."

"I know."

"I need you to understand how frightening it was to watch your brother take over while everybody looked at me."

Reed nodded slowly.

"I've let him take over a lot of things. I called it keeping the peace."

He looked toward the office windows.

"I didn't see who was paying for that peace."

When we returned, Grant was waiting with Avery outside Marjorie's office. Avery's dress had been replaced by jeans and an oversized sweater.

She glanced at Reed, then at me.

"Did you talk?"

"We watched the corridor recording," I said.

Grant's jaw tightened.

"I went up to check on her. That doesn't prove anything else."

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