Chapter 7: Granny's Porch

I was out of the truck before Jeb cut the engine.

The church ladies heard the gravel and turned around all at once.

Breanne's mama lowered her phone.

Then she smiled at me with every one of her teeth.

"Well. Look who finally came home."

"Granny," I said. "You okay?"

Granny took her hand off her chest and waved it at me.

"I'm fine, baby. It's just indigestion from listening to all this."

I climbed the porch steps.

Breanne's mama didn't move out of my way, so I stopped right in front of her.

"Go on," I said. "Show me the picture."

She held the phone up, pleased with herself.

My ring on Breanne's hand. Bentley's watch in the corner.

"Eighteen thousand dollars," she said. "He loves her. Some girls just can't keep a man."

"He paid for it with my company's card," I said.

One of the ladies blinked.

"And yesterday afternoon, the board of that company fired him for it."

"Your daughter was walked out of the building with him. Two security guards. Sixty people watched."

Breanne's mama's smile froze in place.

"That's a lie."

"Call the elder. He cast the vote."

Every head on that porch turned toward the elder's house across the creek.

Everyone in the Hollow knew the elder didn't lie. He didn't have the patience for it.

"She's got fifteen percent of that company," Breanne's mama said, too loud. "Bentley signed it to her."

"He signed something," I said. "It's not worth the paper."

"So the next time you tell this whole hollow I'm a thief, tell them the rest."

"Tell them your baby girl wore a ring bought with stolen money to a party she got kicked out of."

The ladies looked at each other.

Then, one by one, they found reasons to remember their pot roasts.

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