Let Them Dare novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Seat
I wrote the letter at the kitchen table on Tuesday night, in pen, because I wanted my hand to feel it.
It was three sentences long.
My mother sat across from me in her slippers with a cup of tea she had not touched.
"Read it to me," she said.
"I withdraw my name from the Hartwell Scholarship. I believe Delaney Shore should receive it. I would be glad to attend Cromwell on any other terms the committee offers."
She was quiet for a while.
"That's a full ride you're writing away," she said.
"I know."
"That's four years of my back."
"I know, Mom."
"I'm not saying don't." She turned the cup in a circle. "I'm saying I want you to see how big it is, so you can't tell yourself later that it was small."
"I see it."
"Then I'll take a third floor in the fall." She reached across and put her rough hand over my wrist. "And I'll tell everyone at work that my daughter gave away a scholarship because it was right, and I'll make them hear the whole thing."
I laughed, and my eyes stung.
The next morning Robby drove me to Cromwell with the letter in a clean envelope on my knee.
He didn't say anything the whole way, which was how I knew he understood.
The dean's waiting room had four chairs and a rack of brochures for a study abroad program in Ghent.
Delaney was in the chair by the window.
She was wearing a dress I had never seen, dark green and a size too large, and she held a white envelope with both hands.
She looked up, and her face did something complicated.
"No," she said.
"Hello to you too."
"You've got that look. You've got a letter." She stood. "You came to give me the seat."
Keep reading free with an account. Start Let Them Dare from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend