A Desperate Bargain

Beatrice stared at the text message for a long time, frozen in place.

After a moment, she quickly called Richard. "What do you mean? Are you trying to use Arthur's incident to trick me into coming over? Richard, this is really getting pointless."

"This time I'm not lying, believe it or not," Richard lowered his voice, but it wasn't the usual high-handed tone he used with Beatrice; instead, it carr