The Hidden Goddess Who Made Him Beg novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: What He Paid
I read the rest of it standing on the wet roof, with Lucian's coat around my shoulders.
My father wrote the way he talked, in loops.
He wrote that he was sorry, and then that sorry was cheap.
He wrote that he had taken the money from the bonus pool of sixty-one people who trusted him.
He wrote that he meant to tell them in person.
He wrote, Mother will want to protect my name, Dellie, and you mustn't let her spend a dollar on that before those families are paid.
Then he wrote, Be the one who tells the truth in the room.
I folded it along its old creases.
Lucian said nothing, and I was grateful.
At ten the next morning the ballroom of the hotel on Federal Street held sixty-one chairs.
Some were filled by the people themselves, gray-haired, in their good coats.
Others held a widow, or a son in a work jacket carrying a father's photograph.
Lucian stood at the front in a plain suit, with no podium.
I had never seen him afraid of a room before.
"My name is Lucian Bulfinch," he said. "My father is under arrest, and you have read why."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Hidden Goddess Who Made Him Beg are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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