He Chose His First Love. I Own His Empire. novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Gala
The transfer van was already in the Maple Court parking lot when we pulled in.
Odile's guard stopped the car across its nose, and I got out before the engine died.
The young woman at the front desk stood up when she saw my face.
"Mrs. Aldrich, I'm so sorry. The order was in order."
"I'm the other responsible party on that account," I said. "I'm revoking it. Call your director and tell her the staff benefit office reports to the holder of the Aldrich vote as of this morning."
"The holder of..."
"That's me. Cancel the van."
She picked up the phone with a shaking hand.
My mother sat in the sunroom at the end of the hall, in the chair by the window where she always sat.
She had the cream cardigan on, buttoned wrong, and she looked up and smiled at me politely.
"Are you the girl from the bakery?" she asked.
"Yes, Mom."
"Did you bring the lemon one?"
"Tomorrow," I said. "I'll bring two."
She looked at me for a long moment.
Then she reached out and laid her palm flat on my stomach.
"Don't let anybody carry that for you," she said clearly, and turned back to the window.
I stayed there until the van pulled out of the lot with nobody in it.
In the car afterward, Odile watched me from the other seat with her oxygen line in her lap.
"You're going to tell me something," she said. "You've gone quiet in the way that means it."
I had decided not to speak for Benton, and I had changed my mind in the lot.
"The money Benton was arrested over, at nineteen," I said. "He told me himself. He never took it."
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