Chapter 15: Nicholas's POV: The Box

Nicholas's POV

A process server found me at the old firm at seven in the morning.

He handed me a thick envelope and said, "Have a good day, sir."

Corbin Home was suing me for a hundred and sixty thousand dollars.

I had slept on the floor of my father's office, with my jacket for a pillow and his last drawing over my head.

I sat on the stool and read the first page, and then I put it down.

I was not scared.

I was surprised how little I was scared.

The door opened, and Audrey Haskell came in carrying a banker's box.

She wore the black suit and the glasses, and she did not say good morning.

"Claire doesn't know I'm here," she said.

"Then why are you?"

"Because you're about to do something stupid for the right reason, and I'd like you to do it informed."

She set the box on the drafting table and lifted the lid.

"This is five years of Ames Row's file on you. Claire told me to burn it the day you signed the papers. I didn't."

"Audrey..."

"Read it or don't. I'll wait outside."

She went out and shut the door.

I took out the first folder.

It was labeled with my name, and my name was in Claire's handwriting.

Inside were copies of the checks to the hospital fund for my mother.

Under them were the letters.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Linden, the hardship committee is pleased to inform you. Dear Mrs. Linden, your treatment has been renewed for another year.

I had read those in the drawer.

I had not read the folder behind them.

It held the department's gift.

The anonymous donor who endowed my studio and my travel budget had been Ames Row.

It had given every year since my third year at the university.

There was a note stapled to the first one, written in blue ink.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Claire and Nicholas After Divorce from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.