My Bride Chose Her Publicity Stunt novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Every Dollar
Nine days after the Wedding Special, the woman in the rain jacket came to my mother's kitchen with a folder.
"Meridian's escrow released at nine this morning," she said. "Ms. Montague's advance was frozen when her contract was voided."
She put a single sheet of paper in front of me.
"Five hundred and three thousand, two hundred dollars," she said. "Principal and eight percent, wired to your account."
I read the number three times.
"Your numbers," the lawyer said. "I checked them. They were right."
My mother set down her coffee cup.
"And Maura's lawsuit?" she asked.
"Withdrawn by Ms. Montague's counsel on Monday. Meridian's lawyers tore up every staff agreement in the building the same afternoon." The lawyer looked at Maura, who sat very straight at the table. "You owe nobody anything, Ms. Flaherty."
Maura did not say a word.
She put her hand flat on the table, and I saw it shake.
Under the table, I took it.
The lawyer left, and my mother stood at the counter a long time with her back to us.
Then she pulled a box of stationery out of the drawer, the cream kind with a border of violets, and sat down to write.
"Mom?"
"I promised a thank-you note," Peggy said. "When my son has his money, and not a minute before."
She wrote a few lines in her round school-cook handwriting and signed it.
Then she held it up so I could read it.
*Dear Lena, thank you. P. Burdick.*
"That's all?"
"That's all she's worth," my mother said, and licked the envelope.
The news that night said Lena Montague had not left her Hollywood Hills house in nine days.
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