Two Billionaire Brothers Hired Me and Warned Me About Each Other novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The East Wing

I went to see Halina Kostka three days before Christmas, and I did not wait to be sent for.

She sat in the straight chair by the east window with her cane across her knees.

The ballroom invitations lay in a stack on the table beside her, cream paper and gold ink.

She did not look up when I came in.

"You sent the check back," she said.

"Cas sent it back," I said. "I only handed it to him."

"It was a generous sum."

"It was the price of the silence of the household," I said. "My mother's price. You set it twice."

At last she raised her eyes.

They were pale and dry, and there was no regret in them at all.

"Girls took envelopes, Miss Calloran," Halina said.

"And they were glad of them. Your mother was glad of hers. I put it in her hand myself, and she thanked me."

"She was nineteen," I said.

"She was hungry."

"She was a guest in your house," I said.

"She was a girl in my house."

Halina turned a card in her fingers.

"Do you know what it costs to keep a house like this for forty years? Do you know what I held together?"

"I know what it cost my mother."

"Your mother has a rowhouse and a daughter and a school bus." Her mouth thinned. "She did well enough."

I stood very still.

I wanted to say a hundred things, and I kept my hands at my sides.

"You'll stand at the microphone on Christmas Eve," I said, "and you'll say what he did."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

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