Desperate for Approval novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Twenty-Two

On the morning I turned twenty-two, I took a half day off work and walked into the bank on Cutler Street.

It was the regional bank from Brandon's photographs.

The woman at the desk had gray in her bun and a name plate I didn't read.

I put my license on the glass between us, then the settlement letter from Grandma's folder.

"I'm the beneficiary of the KH Fund," I said. "It releases to me today."

She read the letter slowly, and her mouth went small.

"Give me a moment, Ms. Holm."

She typed for a while.

Then she looked up, and I saw her decide something.

"I should tell you that Mr. Holm called yesterday afternoon. He asked us to hold your statements until he could be present."

"Are you allowed to do that?"

"No," she said. "You're the beneficiary. You have a right to see everything."

She printed it.

The pages came out of the machine warm, one after another, thirty-one of them.

She slid the stack across, and I started at the top, where the account opened.

There was the money going in, all four hundred and thirty-eight thousand of it.

Then the lines began.

Eight hundred dollars on the first of every month, for years, to an account in my name.

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