Everyone Used Me for Free, So the Billionaire Taught Me to Send the Bill novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Itemize It

I read every page of the file that night with the door locked and my phone off.

I didn't sleep.

At eight in the morning I carried my shoebox across the city on the bus and walked into Mrs. Lund's office without knocking.

She was at her desk with a cup of tea and a plate of shortbread.

"Sweetheart! You're up early."

I put the shoebox on her blotter and lifted the lid.

Twelve years of cafeteria slips.

A decade of grocery receipts, bus passes and a bakery bag with a date on it.

"That's my ledger," I said. "Every meal anyone ever bought me, with the date. I never wanted to owe."

Her smile held.

"I'm touched."

"Now I want yours."

"Joanna."

"Itemize it." I sat down in the chair across from her without being asked. "All of it. The trust, the draws, the van, the fountain, your supplement. And the four hundred dollars a month you paid Kayla for seven years to be my best friend."

She set down her cup.

She did it slowly, and she kept looking at me, and I watched her decide something.

"I see Mr. Greer got to you first," she said.

"I got to it myself. He gave me the file and told me to read it alone."

"How very gallant." She folded her hands. "Let me tell you what you read, then, since you read it badly."

"Go ahead."

"Your parents left a great deal of money and no relatives. A six-year-old with nine million dollars is a target, my dear. For every kind of person. I made you a home. I paid people to be kind to you, yes. Kayla was lonely, and you were lonelier. It cost four hundred dollars a month to make sure you were never alone."

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