The Dead Girl's Wheel of Wish novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Hospital Chapel

The chapel at county hospital was a narrow room with six chairs and a window of colored glass.

It was a quarter to four on Tuesday morning, and Elias had stopped at the door.

"I'll be in the hall," he said. "Shout and I'm in."

"She won't hurt me."

"I know," he said. "I'm staying anyway."

Roxanne sat in the front chair with a paper cup of tea going cold between her hands.

She looked up, and her eyes were so swollen that I almost didn't know her.

"You saw it," she said.

"I saw all of it."

"I spun Truth for you because I couldn't say it." Her voice shook. "I thought if you saw it yourself, I wouldn't have to watch your face."

"You used my student ID, Rox."

"You'd never have let me."

I sat down two chairs away from her.

I didn't want to be any closer.

"Say it," I said. "From the start. I want to hear it in your voice."

She put the cup on the floor.

"Corinna told me about the professor in January," she said. "She'd had dinner with him once because he said it was about her fellowship. Then he kept texting. He's married. She told me because she was scared, and she made me promise."

"And you kept it."

"For a month."

"Then what?"

"Then my mom's bills." She wiped her face with her wrist. "Corinna's seat came with a stipend, the Hollis bridge grant. Eighteen thousand dollars, and the next student on the committee's list gets it if the first one drops out. I was the next name."

I stared at her.

"You never told me you were on a list."

"I was ashamed that I wanted it."

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