Chapter 21: The Letter That Asked for Nothing

Cory's POV

The audit took six weeks.

It found that no client's money had ever touched the Family Future Fund.

It also found that I had used my position to move a joint account, and that I had marked personal transfers as business.

The managing partner read me the finding in his office.

"You're not being charged," he said. "You're being removed."

"I understand."

"Resign, Cory. Quietly. It's more than you've earned."

I signed the letter that afternoon.

Then I went home to the house that now belonged to Beth.

She had told Rhonda she would not be using it yet.

The movers had come for my things.

I had a lease on a one-room apartment above a dry cleaner's.

I had a temp job entering numbers into a tax office's computers.

I had a stack of paper on a card table, and one blank sheet.

It was the middle of June, and I had been trying to write to her for nine days.

I had written four drafts.

The first asked for forgiveness.

I tore it up.

The second explained.

I tore that up too, because every sentence in it was a reason, and a reason was another way of asking.

The third said I would wait as long as she needed.

I read it once and saw what it was.

It was still asking for her to be there at the end.

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