When the Billionaire Begs novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Flowers at Midnight

Stellan drove me home at midnight in his old gray Volvo.

The heater rattled, and the back seat was covered in sketchbooks.

I sat with my right arm in my lap and said nothing, because the word my mother had mouthed was still going around in my head.

"Let me see that," Stellan said, at a red light.

"See what?"

"Your wrist. You've been holding it since the hospital."

I had not noticed.

He reached into the door pocket and pulled out a bag of ice from a gas station, and wrapped it in the scarf from his neck.

He held out his hand.

I put my wrist in it.

His palm was warm and rough with dried paint.

He turned my arm over under the dome light and looked at the purple band around the bone.

Then, very carefully, he laid the cold scarf over it and held it there with both hands.

"Who did this?" he said.

"You know who."

"I want to hear you say it."

"Carlton," I said.

His thumb moved once across the inside of my forearm, below the ice, and stopped.

It was a small thing.

My whole arm woke up.

The light turned green and he did not take his hands away.

Somebody behind us honked.

"Sorry," he said, and let go, and drove.

I did not look at him, and I felt his hands on my arm for three blocks.

When we turned onto my street I saw the black Mercedes at the curb.

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