I Was Her Servant for Five Years, Now She Begs Me to Stay novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Her Father's Steps

Camille's POV

I woke to the sound of my father's voice, and for one second I thought I was thirteen.

Nolan was already pulling on his jeans.

"Stay here," he said.

"No."

I put on the cafeteria sweatshirt and went down the outside stairs behind him with my hair falling in my face.

The rain had stopped.

My father stood at the bottom in a raincoat, bareheaded, with Dean three feet from him and a tire iron hanging from Dean's hand.

Gerald Ashworth had never in his life stood anywhere without a driver, and he looked like a stranger.

"Camille," he said.

"Father."

"I'd like a word with Mr. Tierney."

"You can say it in front of me," I said.

He looked at me for a while.

"The state's attorney opened a file on Sunday," he said. "Two men came to the house yesterday and took my study records. They'll be back at nine this morning with a warrant for the lawyer, and for me."

"Good," Dean said.

"I'm here to make an offer." He turned his pale blue eyes on Nolan. "You have the only original of that page."

"I have a copy at the state's attorney's office," Nolan said. "I took it there Monday."

My father's mouth tightened.

"Then I have one thing left to bargain with," he said. "Camille's trust. It's worth eleven million."

"And?"

"It's hers outright if I sign it over before nine. The house, the cars, the name. All of it can be put back as it was."

"For what?" I said.

"For a statement that the page was a clerical error." He didn't look at me. "A signed statement, from you both, that you had no complaint against your father."

The quiet went on for a very long time.

Dean shifted the tire iron.

I felt Nolan beside me, not moving.

I thought of the dumbwaiter, and the muddy bicycle, and two years of cold tea.

"You came down here at three in the morning," I said, "to buy my silence with my own money."

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