He Said It Was Just Paper. I Left. novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Safe
Elliot's POV
The lake club ballroom was full of flowers.
White roses were stacked in buckets down the center aisle, and two men on ladders were hanging arches of ivy at the far end.
A string quartet's empty chairs waited on the dais.
In the middle of all of it, on the steps below the stage, sat my brother, with the charity cash box between his feet.
I told Willa to stay in the car with Posy.
She looked at me for a long time and then got out anyway, and stopped at the door of the ballroom with her arms crossed.
I did not argue.
I had given up arguing with her around the second day.
"Dalton," I said.
He looked up.
He had loosened his tie and his hair was damp.
"Elliot. You came. I wondered who the club would call."
"Give me the box."
"It's a thousand dollars in raffle money." He nudged it with his shoe. "It's nothing. I wanted something to do with my hands."
"It's the charity's money. Put it in my hands."
He picked it up and weighed it in his hand.
Then he held it out.
I took it.
"You've been suspended," I said. "The accountants arrive at noon tomorrow. If they find what I think they'll find, there will be an officer waiting for you by the afternoon."
"Great. Wonderful." He laughed, tired and bright. "I'll tell you something, big brother. I love this room. I picked it. I picked the flowers, the music, the cake. I picked everything for Thursday."
"There won't be a Thursday."
"There will." He stood, brushing off his knees. "A hundred and forty people accepted. Nobody cancelled them. Mother told the florists to carry on."
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