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Back A Small Affair Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. Part Two
  22. 1
  23. 2
  24. 3
  25. 4
  26. 5
  27. 6
  28. 7
  29. 8
  30. 9
  31. 10
  32. 11
  33. 12
  34. 13
  35. 14
  36. 15
  37. 16
  38. 17
  39. 18
  40. 19
  41. Part Three
  42. 1
  43. 2
  44. 3
  45. 4
  46. 5
  47. 6
  48. 7
  49. 8
  50. 9
  51. 10
  52. EPILOGUE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  54. Booklist

“Someone is trying to extort you,” Mr. Bennington had said grimly. And then her cybersecurity detail noticed that somebody called Quinn Sun was poking around, trying to find information. After that, after learning Quinn was a journalist, after learning who I was, it wasn’t too difficult to see what our plans were.

“You got the short end of the stick, I get it. I would be pissed, too, if I got blamed for some lame guy’s crimes and he was dead, so you couldn’t even kill him yourself. I would also want to dig up any skeletons I could find on him.” She stabs the cigarette into the makeshift ashtray, wriggles her hands, deciding whether to light another. “To be honest, I’m sure that was intentional. I am certain that there’s a lot of dirty shit behind the scenes at SNAPea that none of those board members want getting out. It would not surprise me if Bennington or one of the other buffoons paid off the NYPD not to dig too deep, had their PR team construct a narrative that put you front and center of the crime and sold that to the media. Those guys have a finger in every pie. And I would know because I’m married to one of them.”

Her features, they’re so symmetrical, like a sculpture carved from marble, that it’s hard to look away. She’s mesmerizing, incandescent, even the way her lips move is so precise. I can’t help but pay attention to what she’s saying, like she’s hypnotizing me, almost, like I’m cast under her incantations.

“But I don’t have that much empathy for you. Initially, I wanted to blackmail you to get my picture back.” She laughs. “That’s why I came here. I tracked down your mom, joined her yoga class, hoped that she would talk. And God, did she talk. About how powerful you are, how you’ll do anything to get ahead, how proud she is of herself for raising you, even though she’s not supposed to be, given your circumstances.” She taps her nails on the table, clack clack clack, like a machine gun.

“But then something else occurred to me. Something far better than my blackmailing you into handing off the photo. Or giving away any of my husband’s precious money in order to have it back. Because we’re not that different, you and I. I see myself in you, in your gumption.” She pauses, grabs my hand, interlaces my fingers with hers and tells me what I’m going to do. What we’re going to do.

9

TOM

1.5 years ago