Page 44 of Dear Wife

He shuts the door behind him. “Jeffrey, people are starting to talk...”

“What people?”

He makes anare-you-kidding-meface, a minuscule lifting of his shoulders. “The point is—”

“Who, Eric? What are they saying?”

I know what they’re saying.Sabine cheated. She was in love with another man. Jeffrey Hardison is a fool. A stooge. A sucker.

My desk phone buzzes, and I tap the Do Not Disturb button. The system flips the call through to voice mail.

“People are worried about your wife, Jeffrey,” Eric says evenly. “They’re worried about you.” His words toss yet another coal onto my belly-fire.

I slam both fists onto my desk and lean in. “They’reworried? How do you thinkIfeel? Today is day six. Six days since Sabine went wherever she went, and there’s still no sign of her. The police think—” I stop myself just in time. I inhale long and slow, trying to put a damper on my tone, on my temper. “This whole situation is crazy intense. I’ve barely slept. I’ve lost my appetite. You can’t even imagine the stress I’m under.”

“Icanimagine. Which is why I suggested you take some time off. Nobody expects you to be here, least of all me.”

I choke up a chuckle, an attempt to laugh it off. “I gotta tell you, Eric, I never thought I’d hear you tell me I’d done enough work. I thought your motto was ‘more is more.’ I barely know what to do with this laid-back version of you.”

He doesn’t share my joviality, not even a little bit. The silence stretches, long and painful. He leans a shoulder against the door. “Are you really going to make me say it?”

I cross my arms, lean back in my chair. Wait.

He sighs, stepping to the edge of my desk. “Look, if it was just the staff talking, that’d be one thing, but the clients are starting to ask questions, and not just of me. They’re talking to each other, and already the gossip is swirling out of control. I can’t have potential customers getting wind of this. Business is already bad enough.”

I clear my throat. “So this suggestion of yours for me to take some time off. It wasn’t a suggestion, really? More like an order?”

“Both.”

“Are you firing me?”

He lifts both hands into the air, frustrated. “Come on, you know I can’t do that. We work in HR, for crap’s sake.” There’s a knock at the door, which we both ignore. “I’m placing you on paid leave so you can go home and worry about your wife in private. Just until this thing blows over.”

I take a deep breath. Sit here calmly, at my desk across from him, while his words boil under my skin.Until this blows over. Meaning what, until Sabine is found safe and sound, and I’m proven innocent? Or that I’m carted out of here in handcuffs and he has reasonable grounds to fire me? Which one?

There’s another knock, this time louder. More forceful. Florence’s voice works its way through the wood. “Jeffrey? I tried to call but your phone is on DND.”

I roll my eyes, but Eric’s gaze doesn’t waver. “Are we agreed?” he says, his voice low and filled with meaning. I give him a brisk nod:fine. In fact, fuck this place. A paid vacation sounds like just what the doctor—Nope, not going there. Fuck Trevor, and fuck Eric, too.

Eric steps back and opens the door, and Florence swipes the air with a knobby fist. She sees him, and her arm falls to her side. “Oh.” Her gaze bounces from Eric to mine. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. Sorry.”

My jaw aches from the pressure creeping up my neck and shoulders, from keeping my molars clamped together. Ofcourseshe meant to interrupt, every time she banged on my door as well as however many times she tried to call. The Do Not Disturb button exists for a reason.

“It’s fine, Florence,” Eric says. “Jeffrey and I were done.”

Florence’s gaze cuts me like a knife fresh from the freezer. “There’s a detective here to see you.”

MARCUS

Jeffrey’s office smells like coffee and expensive cologne, but it can’t disguise the stink of his panic when I step through his door. I thank the receptionist and his boss, close the door in their faces. I picture them standing on the other side, pressing their ears to the wood. A detective dropping by an office for an unexpected visit is always a showstopper. They were equal parts captivated and horrified.

He watches me sink into one of the chairs across from his desk, trying to read my expression, but I don’t give anything away. Let him sweat. I toss my bag and keys on the chair next to me, settling in like I’m planning to stay awhile.

“Thanks for squeezing me in. I’m sure you must be very busy...” I take in the PDK poster on the wall, his whiteboard messy with sales numbers and scribbled reminders, theEvery day I’m hustlin’desk plaque on the edge of his desk. “What is it you do here exactly?”

“PDK Workforce Solutions provides an interactive human resources management software that helps grow your business. Recruitment, performance management, workflow, things like that. Honestly?” He lowers his voice to a stage whisper. “Don’t buy it, it’s a little buggy.”

I watch him without even a shadow of amusement.

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