Divorce Me Today, Beg Me Tomorrow novel · Chapter 12 of 16

Chapter 12: What I Inherited

On the screen, Kristen wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"She told us Grandma left her a shoebox," she sobbed. "A shoebox! She lied to our faces for weeks. She was planning this the whole time."

Seventy thousand viewers.

The comments were pouring up the side of the screen faster than I could read them.

Gold digger. Poor mom. Lock her up.

Sebastian looked over my shoulder.

"Legal can have that video down in an hour."

"No," I said. "Leave it up."

"Rebecca."

"She wants an audience. She can have one. Tomorrow."

Mr. Pruitt put his glasses back on.

"Hale's quarterly shareholders' meeting is at ten tomorrow," he said. "There will be press. Evelyn always let them in."

"Then I'll answer her there."

By morning Kristen's video had four million views.

A news van was parked outside Hale Tower.

My mother had given an interview on the sidewalk, crying in her camel coat, holding a photo of herself as a child on Evelyn's knee.

The auditorium on the second floor held six hundred people.

Shareholders in the seats. Reporters along the back wall. Cameras on tripods.

I walked out onto the stage in a plain navy suit.

Nobody clapped.

A reporter in the front row called out before I reached the podium.

"Mrs. Langley, did you manipulate Evelyn Hale while she was ill?"

"I never met her," I said.

The room murmured.

"I never saw her face. I never heard her voice. The first time she ever spoke to me, she was already dead, and it was through her lawyer."

I nodded to the side of the stage.

The big screen behind me lit up.

A photo of a shoebox, the lid open.

Thirty-two birthday cards, and a twenty-dollar bill in every one.

"She sent me one of these every year," I said. "Through my school."

In the second row, a shareholder took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

Then Mr. Pruitt walked out and stood beside me.

"Mrs. Hale made this will nineteen years ago," he said. "She confirmed it in June, with two physicians present."

He looked out at the seats.

"She was sharper than anyone in this room."

"She also asked that Mrs. Langley tell no one about the inheritance until today. Mrs. Hale wanted to see who her family was, when they believed Rebecca had nothing."

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