Chapter 12: August Fourteenth

"Don't open it in the hall," Preston said. "Please. Somebody will see."

Lawrence had come up behind me without a sound.

He stood in the doorway with his mask in his hand and said nothing at all.

I carried the folder to the window seat, into the moonlight, and sat down.

Preston stayed by the door, wringing his hands.

Inside the folder were forty pages, clipped in sections, with yellow flags in the margins.

The first page was a bank statement with Delacourt Group at the top.

The balance was less than nine thousand dollars.

Under it was a column of loans, and the total at the bottom read three hundred and ten million.

"Father left us that," Preston said hoarsely.

"When he died, eleven years ago. He bet everything on a hotel chain that never opened."

"Mother's been borrowing from the next lender to pay the last one ever since."

I turned a page.

"We're not rich, Ains. We haven't been rich for a decade. We just look it."

"Then why did she say my family was bankrupt?"

"Because someone was about to look at our books."

His face crumpled.

"The prenup lawyers. Yours. They asked for our statements in September."

"She couldn't let them see. So she picked a family that could take the blame."

"She picked yours."

My mouth had gone dry.

"She started the rumor."

"Her assistant opened the account. I watched it happen."

His voice shook.

"She said if the whole town was busy talking about Lockridge, no one would ask why we couldn't pay a florist."

"And you let her."

"I let her. I let her do all of it. I'm a coward, Ains. I know what I am."

Keep reading free with an account. Start We Never Said We Went Bankrupt! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.