Called a Gold Digger, I Returned Everything novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Receipts

I walked the whole length of the ballroom with a spotlight on me and my notebook against my chest.

Nobody clapped.

Three hundred people watched a woman in a thrift-store coat climb the stage stairs, and I heard every one of my steps.

Lucinda met me at the podium with her arm out and a face full of love.

"Say yes and smile," she murmured, so softly the microphone missed it. "It'll be over in a minute."

She held out the cream folder, the same one from the birthday dinner.

I took it from her.

Then I turned to the room and leaned into the microphone.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Susie. I'm the gift recipient."

A few people laughed uncertainly.

"On Monday I returned everything Dalton ever spent on me, at the front desk of his company. I have the notebook right here."

I held it up, and the green cover caught the light.

"Tonight I bought my own ticket. I counted it out at the registration table, five hundred dollars a plate, one bill at a time."

Somebody near the front whispered, and somebody else shushed them.

"The program says I received four hundred twelve thousand, eight hundred and sixty dollars. I didn't. The accountant wants me to say yes to that on a recording. I won't say yes to something that isn't true, no matter how many times my name is printed under it."

I turned to Lucinda and held out her folder.

"This isn't mine," I said. "I'm returning it to its owner."

Lucinda looked at the folder.

She didn't take it.

After a moment, I set it on the podium between us, and the sound it made was very small.

"Susie," Lucinda said, stepping up beside me and taking the microphone with a sad, patient smile. "That took real courage. I mean it. But we all love courage and we all need receipts, and you've just told us you have a notebook in your own handwriting."

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