System Erased Her From My Memory novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Bus Stop

Finn was waiting on my front steps on Saturday morning with two coffees and a face.

"I'm not here to be forgiven," he said.

"Good."

"I'm here to say I'll never keep a secret from you again. Not even if you write it on an envelope."

"Especially not then."

"Especially not then."

He handed me a cup.

It was black, three sugars.

I looked at it, and then at him.

"Joke's on you," Finn said. "I don't know how you take it. I asked Delaney."

I laughed so hard I had to sit down on the step.

He sat next to me.

For a while we drank the coffee and said nothing.

"Dalton's been charged," he said finally. "Fraud. Mr. Vanstone's lawyers filed an hour after the auction."

"Good."

"He's calling it a misunderstanding."

"It was on tape."

"It was," said Finn. "In very clear audio."

At two in the afternoon it started to rain.

I didn't have to look up the address.

I'd carried it in a part of my head that had finally woken up.

The bus stop was on Halsted, a plain shelter with a cracked bench, the same one.

Delaney was standing under it with a suitcase and an umbrella she wasn't using.

She wore a yellow raincoat.

I stopped on the curb and my chest did something odd.

"You kept it," I said.

"It's the only coat I own that I don't hate." She smiled, small and crooked. "My father's driver is two blocks away. I told him I wanted a bus for the first twenty miles. Don't ask me why."

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

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