My Future Doesn't Have Room for You novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Lawyer Over the Hardware Store

The hardware store on Main Street sold nails, snow shovels and key copies.

The door beside it had a brass sign that said ATTORNEY, and a stairway behind it that smelled of old paper.

Esther waited at the bottom with her purse in both hands.

"I'm coming up with you," she said. "You can send me away at the top."

I did not send her away.

The office had one window, three filing cabinets and a desk covered in folders.

Behind the desk sat a thin old man in a cardigan with a hearing aid in each ear.

He stood up very slowly when I came in.

"Hallie Braeburn," he said. "You have your mother's chin."

I held out the letter.

He read it standing, then sat down and took off his glasses.

"I have been writing to you for ten years," he said.

"I never got anything."

"No. I assumed that, in October, when I sent the last one by certified mail and your aunt signed for it." He put the glasses back on. "I have the receipts. Sit down, Miss Braeburn. This will take some time."

I sat.

Esther took the chair beside mine and didn't say a word.

He opened a thick blue folder.

"Your mother set up a trust the week you were born. She was alone and careful. When she died, the transit authority paid a settlement for the bus crash, and that money went into the trust too."

"How much?"

"Three hundred and forty thousand dollars, held for you."

My hands lay flat on my knees.

"Held until when?"

"Until you graduate high school, or turn nineteen, whichever comes first. You graduate in June. On the first day of the month after, it's yours. The whole amount, with interest."

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