Chapter 24: One Dollar

The studio apartment was four blocks from the drugstore, on the second floor of a brick building with a laundromat underneath.

It had one window, a radiator that knocked, and a lease with my name on it.

I had signed it with the deposit Corrine sent.

My paychecks were in a new account, at a bank that did not belong to any Pfeiffer.

Ronan had carried my boxes up the stairs without being asked, and he had stopped at the door.

"You can say no," he said.

"To what?"

"To me staying."

"I'll put it to a vote," I said.

The laptop sat on a card table by the window, with two folding chairs.

It was the first table I had ever bought.

On the screen was the channel dashboard, and Colm's last gift.

He had been a second administrator on the account the whole time.

Nobody had thought to ask what a boy with a ring light did with his login.

He had sent me the password the night after the Live, with a text: I'm sorry. Do whatever you want.

The Fair Table had two million subscribers left, and fewer every hour.

I clicked the playlist.

DENIED GIRL, 212 videos.

The first thumbnail was my face at twenty-two, at a table, with my mouth open.

The last was the coat.

Ronan stood behind my chair with a hand on the back of it.

"You don't have to do it today," he said. "There are lawyers who'd want them."

"They have the raw files. They have your three copies, and they have mine."

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