A Night With A Stranger novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Only Language He Knows

Margaret waited until the last board member had left and the door had clicked shut.

She didn't sit.

She stood at the head of the table with one hand on the back of her chair, and she looked at me for a long time.

"I have your file," she said.

"I assumed you did."

"Eleven thousand four hundred dollars. Your mother's hospital bills, still owed to two collection agencies and a clinic."

My jaw tightened.

"I'm not going to offer to pay it," she said. "You refused two hundred thousand in front of my board. I can count."

"Then why are you telling me?"

"Because my son will offer. Within the day, I expect."

"He won't. We have a rule."

"Miss Keane." Her mouth moved, not quite a smile. "I've known my son for thirty-two years. Money is the only language he was ever taught to say sorry in."

"Is that a warning?"

"It's a courtesy. I don't extend many."

She picked up the printout of the gossip post and folded it in half, and in half again.

"The vote is in a week," she said. "I haven't decided how I will cast mine. You may go."

I walked out with my knees steady and my hands not steady at all.

In the lobby, the concierge shook his head before I asked.

"A young woman in a gray hoodie waited here an hour, miss. She left five minutes ago, crying."

My phone buzzed.

It was Bree again.

"I lost my nerve. Not here. I'll come to your door tonight. Please don't tell him yet."

I stood in the middle of the marble floor and read it three times.

Then I rode up to twenty-two with the phone burning in my fist.

Evan was in the guest suite sitting room, jacket off, sleeves rolled, waiting on the sofa.

He stood when I came in.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle." I dropped my bag on a chair. "She knows about my mother's bills."

His face didn't change.

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