They Fought Over Who Had to Keep Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Account
"Let me explain," Crispin said.
"Explain what? I can read."
I stood up off his bed with the two sleeves in my hand.
He did not come into the room.
He stayed in the doorway with his badge in one fist, and I saw that the hand was not steady.
"Your grandmother asked me in January," he said. "Before she got sick. She said your father would hand you around like a coat nobody wanted."
"She said that to you."
"She said it over a plate of ham. She made me promise I'd see you landed."
"And then in August they both paid you."
"Your mother called on the fourteenth. She said she had a place in Columbus, a residence program for young women, and she wanted a landlord reference for your grandmother's lease."
"Your father called two days later. His cousin in Tampa had a spare room."
I couldn't breathe right.
"They didn't know about each other," Crispin said. "Each of them thought they were the only one finding you a place. Each of them was going to send you away on your birthday."
"So you said yes."
"I said yes to both."
"For ten thousand dollars."
"I said yes so they'd stop looking. If I'd said no, they'd have found someone else who would say yes."
"And you kept the money."
"I never touched it."
His voice cracked on the last word.
"I opened an account on the nineteenth, in your name only. My mother stood in the bank with me as the adult witness, because you were seventeen. I can't take a dollar out of it. Neither can they. I put my own money in beside theirs."
Keep reading free with an account. Start They Fought Over Who Had to Keep Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
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