Chapter 16: The Check

The driver took me to the Bingham building.

I had never been inside it.

The lobby had a marble floor, a brass plate by the elevators, and a café with eight small tables.

Brett's father sat at the farthest one with a cup of tea and a white envelope.

He was tall and gray, with Quincy's straight nose.

He had Quincy's eyes too, but nothing moved behind them.

"Ms. Hallett," he said. "Thank you for coming."

"I wasn't given a choice."

"You were given a car."

I sat down.

A waiter came and went. Two women at the next table lowered their voices and kept listening.

He set the envelope in front of me.

"Open it."

"No."

"It's a check. I'm told you prefer to pay your own way, so I've written it as a payment."

"For what?"

"For six months of your time. Brett has spent a great deal of it."

I looked at him.

He was not embarrassed. He had the mild face of a man who had never been told no by a woman in a café.

"How much?" I asked.

"Enough to print your thesis in gold leaf and buy the bookshelf to put it on."

"And the price?"

"You'll be unavailable on the fifteenth. You'll have a cold. A trip. Whatever you like."

I opened the envelope.

The number was larger than my family had ever had in one place.

I read the zeroes carefully, so he would see me read them.

Then I tore the check in half.

I tore it again.

The two women at the next table stopped pretending.

I laid the four pieces on his saucer, neatly, next to his spoon.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Mistook Me for My Roommate, So I Called a Stranger Husband from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.