"I don't accept you" — he shouted it in front of everyone novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Lot Again
The Beta kept his word at noon the next day, in Moon Hall, with the doors shut.
He offered me the Harwick house, my father's share of the mill, and a seat among the elders.
All I had to do was drop the matter of Jasper's blood and hand the healer's notes to him.
"Redwood owes you that much," he said, smiling.
"Redwood owes me my mother's name," I said. "Keep the house."
His smile stayed where it was.
"Friday, then," he said. "Let the boy say his piece, and we will see who still wants to talk."
Ezra, at the door, said nothing, but his eyes were on the Beta's hands.
Friday came gray and cold.
Ridge Academy's lot filled before the first bell, and nobody went inside.
Students stood on the curbs and the hoods of cars and the low wall by the gym.
Clover had gotten there at six to claim the best spot, and she waved at me from the wall with her phone already up.
Ezra had walked in from the gate with me, one step behind my shoulder, and the crowd had made room for both of us.
He stood next to me at the edge of the lot.
I did not take his hand.
I stood close enough that our sleeves touched, and that was enough.
The white car pulled in a minute before the bell.
Jasper's mother was driving.
He climbed out slowly, in a plain gray sweater, with no letterman jacket.
His sandy hair had been cut.
He still looked ill, but his eyes were clear, and when he stepped into the lot a murmur ran around it and died.
He walked to the exact spot.
I knew it without being told.
It was the square of cracked asphalt twelve feet from where my father had stood, next to the faded white line of space thirty, where the wind had changed and I had smelled pine and rain and the end of my old life.
He turned to face the crowd.
"My name is Jasper Penhallow," he said.
His voice carried.
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