Six Rooms at the Lake, But None for My Parents novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Twelve Thousand

Nobody in the gravel drive moved.

A jay screamed in the pines, and Colin's last words hung there.

"Say that again," his father said.

"Dad, I can explain."

"You took the money from the roof account. Say where it went."

Colin looked around the circle: his mother's stone face, my parents by their car, Nate with the folder open in his hand.

He had nowhere to go, and he knew it.

"It's not gone," he said. "It's invested. It's in the family."

"Where?"

"Brooke needed a deposit." His voice cracked. "The landlord wanted the deposit and the first year of rent up front, forty-two thousand, or somebody else was going to take the space. Mom was crying about it for a month. I made it happen."

"You gave Brooke forty-two thousand dollars," said Gail slowly.

"Thirty-eight from the severance and four of Dad's twelve."

"And the other eight of your father's?"

He looked at his shoes.

"My cards," he said. "I had to keep paying the minimums on the cards so you wouldn't see anything. I put a lot on them in January."

Colin's father sat down on the bumper of Gail's car.

He did it slowly, like a man much older than sixty-six, and for once nobody told him to get up.

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend