Private School Playboys novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Chair

The chair of the Hollis board kept an office on the top floor of Founders Hall, behind a door the color of old wine.

It had a fireplace, two leather chairs, and a window that looked over the whole campus.

Sheridan's father sat behind a desk the size of a car.

He was a silver-haired man in a navy suit, with Sheridan's cold blue eyes and none of her smile.

Sheridan herself sat in a chair by the fire, one leg crossed over the other.

She didn't look at me.

"Miss Whittredge," the board chair said. "Sit."

I stayed standing.

He waited a moment.

Then he opened a drawer and took out a slim envelope and slid it across the desk.

"Open it."

I did.

Inside was a cashier's check.

It was made out to me for forty thousand dollars.

I held my phone low against my leg and took a picture of it while he talked.

My ears rang.

I read the number three times.

My mother made twenty-two thousand a year.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Tuition for any other school you'd like to attend," the board chair said.

"Your scholarship ends at the semester, quietly, with a glowing reference. No review. No record."

"In exchange for what?"

"Your silence about what you showed the chapel this morning. And your absence from the Winter Formal."

I looked at Sheridan.

She was examining her nails.

"You want me to leave," I said.

"I want things to be calm."

"Did Sheridan tell you what Brooks did?"

"I'm aware of what my daughter's friend did."

"Friend."

Sheridan's mouth twitched.

I put the check back on the desk.

I put it down carefully, because I wanted to throw it, and I would not give either of them that.

"No, thank you."

The board chair's face did not change.

"Forty thousand dollars is a great deal for a girl in your position."

"My position is in your chair, apparently."

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