He Gave Me Fifty Dollars to Live, I Left Him with Nothing novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: What He Kept

Whitney walked down the gravel slowly, with her head down.

She wore no makeup, and her hair was twisted up in a plastic clip.

Her hands were empty except for the bag.

The deputy moved to stop her, and I lifted my wrapped hand.

"Let her come."

She stopped an arm's length from me.

Up close, her eyes were swollen.

"Your hand," she said.

"Don't."

"I didn't know he'd burn it."

"You didn't know a lot of things."

Her mouth shook.

"I know." She held out the bag with both hands. "Take it."

I did not take it.

Tobias took it and unzipped it under the lantern light.

Inside were a gray ledger and a stack of printed pages with a bank's header.

"It's his second set," Whitney said. "He kept a copy at home, in the cabinet behind the bar. I found the key in his desk this afternoon. I've known where it was since I was fourteen."

"Why bring it to me?"

"Because I asked him tonight where the villa money came from."

"And?"

"He said it was my mother's insurance." She wiped her nose with the back of her wrist. "My mother had no insurance. She had a cough and a lease. I looked it up before the party and I didn't want to see it."

I said nothing.

"I filmed you, Roz. For years. I cut your voice into something ugly and I stood in a room and let you be called a thief." She was crying openly now. "I sold my mother's rings myself and I said you took them. I sold them because he stopped my allowance for a month."

"Why?"

"Because I'd laughed at him in front of his friends. And then he handed me a house to make it better, and I took it." She looked at me. "I took a nine-year-old's house."

← Chapter 25 · All chapters · Chapter 27 →

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