I Was Done Begging novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Lilies at the Gate

Celia's POV

I showed the dawn text to the detective before I had finished my first cup of coffee.

He read it twice, bagged Lucas's phone and sent four officers to the river docks.

We did not go.

At noon they called back from an empty pier with a coil of rope, a cold cigar and nobody else.

"He knew we'd bring police," Lucas said.

"Then he knows we're not afraid of him," I said.

I was.

I held the cup in both hands so nobody would see it.

My mother had found me at seven that morning, on the guesthouse step, in Lucas's shirt and yesterday's gown.

She held out a robe, folded over her arm, and she said nothing for a full breath.

"Your father is pretending he didn't see you come out of there," she said.

"Mama."

"I told him you are twenty-eight years old and you nearly died in a car crash, and he may go and look at his roses."

I laughed so hard that my eyes filled.

She hugged me with her whole small body.

She smelled of lavender and fresh toast, and I let her hold me for a long time.

At breakfast my father put his reading glasses on the table and folded his hands.

"At six this morning I bought Lacombe Marine's debt," he said.

I put my fork down.

"All of it?"

"Every note the bank held. Four hundred million dollars, at a discount, because the bank was afraid of the news."

"The Lacombe board met an hour ago. They have not got the money to pay me, and I have not asked."

"Papa. I asked for two weeks. I did not ask you to buy the company."

"You got your two weeks," my father said. "I bought the debt because I'm finished watching that boy decide what happens to you."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Was Done Begging from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.