Chapter 12: Hush Money

Cal came down the last three steps and saw what I was holding.

His face changed.

"Where did you find that?"

"In your shoebox. It was under a takeout menu."

"Rae."

"You took his money."

"Let me explain."

"You took eighty thousand dollars from Vince Sorrell."

My voice was shaking, and I hated it.

"And you signed a paper saying you'd never talk about the night he put you in the hospital."

"I was twenty-nine."

"That's not an answer."

"I had a bleed in my brain and I couldn't walk straight for three months."

He did not raise his voice.

"I couldn't fight, and I couldn't prove a thing. A lawyer told me I'd lose in court and pay his fees on top of it."

"And?"

"Sorrell's people sent a man to the hospital with a check and a pen. I took it."

"You told me you'd spent four years not knowing."

"I have."

"You knew exactly who did it."

"I knew who was on the card!"

He stopped, and took a breath.

"I didn't know what happened. I still don't. I knew the man who sent the check had a reason to send it."

"And you let him pay you off."

"I used it to buy this building, Rae. This floor. This ring."

He gestured at the bags and the old photographs and the faded banner.

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