I Stripped to Keep My Boyfriend in School, and He Sold Me to the Man My Brother Died Owing novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Stubs
Nobody moved.
The urn hissed.
Forty people sat in a church basement with their cups halfway to their mouths, and every face turned from Lars to me and back again.
I did not argue.
I had known he would say it, and I had planned for it on the drive.
A forged book cannot be argued with.
It can only be read by someone whose eyes he cannot meet.
An old woman sat in the middle of the table, and I turned to her.
"You kept the stewards' books, ma'am," I said.
She looked up.
She was seventy-four, with a white perm and a cardigan buttoned to the throat.
She had kept the books at the Superior stewards' hall for thirty-one years, until the hall hired a younger man with a computer.
I had sat next to her at this table since I was six, and she had taught me how to fold a paper napkin into a swan.
"I did, dear," she said.
"Would you read something for me?" I said.
"I'm not a lawyer," she said.
"You're a bookkeeper," I said. "You know the fund's own stubs better than anyone alive. You kept them in your kitchen for three decades because the hall wouldn't buy a filing cabinet."
A dry sound went round the table that was almost a laugh.
"I did," she said.
"I'd like you to read Lars's hand," I said.
"His hand?" she said.
"Three entries in the ledger carry his initials in the margin," I said. "You've seen a thousand of his notes. You've seen him sign the Christmas checks."
"Iris, kulta," Lars said, quite kindly. "This is unseemly. She's a grieving child."
"I'm twenty-two," I said. "Ma'am?"
She took off her reading glasses and cleaned them on her cardigan.
She put them back on.
Then she stood, slowly, with a hand on the table, and walked the length of the room to where the green book lay open on the white paper cloth.
She bent over it and did not touch it.
Her lips moved as she read.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Stripped to Keep My Boyfriend in School, and He Sold Me to the Man My Brother Died Owing are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend