They Gave My Sister the Hotels, So I Stayed to Take Them Back novel · Chapter 24 of 32

Chapter 24: The Rotunda

"He's calling your gift a bribe," I said.

"He'd know one when he saw it," Noah said.

I sat up on the quilt and buttoned my blouse wrong.

"Then we answer it where he filed it."

The judge gave Damon eight o'clock Wednesday morning, two hours before the auction.

Damon didn't come.

He sent his lawyer, who stood up in a fresh gray suit and called Noah's fee assignment "a four-hundred-thousand-dollar inducement to the trustees."

The pension fund's chair sat behind us with his union pin and his briefcase.

When it was our turn, Noah's lawyer stood up, and then I did.

"Your Honor, Mr. Halberd says someone bought a trustee," I said. "He's right about that."

I handed the clerk the night supervisor's photo, printed on hotel letterhead.

"The man who delivered it is in the hallway," I said. "He's happy to come in."

The judge looked at the photo for a while.

Then she looked over her glasses at Damon's lawyer.

"Counsel, does your client want to be heard on this envelope?"

Damon's lawyer looked at his phone.

"No, Your Honor."

"Then the motion is denied," the judge said. "Halyard may bid. Good luck with your auction, everyone."

The rotunda of the county courthouse was round and cold, with a marble floor and a dome that sent every cough back down twice.

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