The Gold Digger's Ledger novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Keep It

Miranda's POV

Tristan looked at the grocery bag for a long moment.

Then he slid it back across the desk with two fingers.

"Keep it," he said.

"I can't."

"It's the deal. Cash, every Friday. You set that term on the dock."

"I set it for a man with a bank."

"The term doesn't mention a bank."

I almost laughed, and that made me angrier.

"Fine," I said. "I'll hold it."

"Hold it?"

"Like a deposit. It goes under my bed, and I don't spend a dollar. When this is over, you get it back."

He opened his mouth to argue. Then he looked at my face and shut it.

"There's something else I owe you before you add it up," he said.

He picked up a pen and put it down again.

"I read your book. Not all of it. April, in your kitchen, you left it open by the coffee."

The room went very quiet.

"I read the top of the page upside down. And the last line."

"Leave when it's reached," I said.

"Yes."

"That was term one, Tristan. You never read it."

"I read it before there was a term."

I stood there with my arms at my sides.

"You've known for three months," I said.

"Yes."

"And you kept paying."

"Yes."

"Why?"

His jaw tightened, and for the first time he sounded angry instead of ashamed.

"You wrote it under my name before you knew my middle name. You'd planned the day you'd walk out on me before the second dinner."

"I plan that day for every man."

"I know. I wanted to be the one man whose page came in late."

I had no answer for that.

"It didn't come in late," I said finally. "I passed it the first Friday you paid me. I opened the envelope and didn't notice."

"And you're still here."

"I'm still here."

"Explain that to the book."

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