My Future Doesn't Have Room for You novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Janet's Offer

At ten to four, the lawyer's secretary put Esther and me in a file room across the hall.

The door stood open two inches.

I could see a slice of his desk and the back of the client chair.

At four o'clock exactly, I heard heels on the stairs.

"Thank you for seeing me," Janet said.

Her voice was soft and tired.

It was the voice she used at church when someone asked about me.

"Please sit," the lawyer said.

"I'll be honest, I'm worried sick. Hallie left the house in a state on Tuesday night. She won't take my calls. She's had a very hard time since her mother passed, and I think the pressure of this scholarship has been too much."

"Mm," said the lawyer.

"I want to protect her. She's eighteen, but she's a very young eighteen. I don't want some predator taking advantage."

I looked at Esther, and Esther looked at the ceiling.

"What did you have in mind?" the lawyer said.

"Well." A purse clasp clicked. "I've spoken with my husband. We'd be willing to relieve her of the burden. If she signs a release of her claims on the trust to us as her family, we would pay her twenty thousand dollars now, in cash."

The lawyer didn't answer.

"It's a very generous amount for a girl her age," Janet went on. "Penn is paid for. She doesn't need more."

"Twenty thousand dollars," the lawyer said, "against three hundred and forty thousand."

The room went quiet.

"I didn't say that was the number," Janet said carefully.

"You said the trust, Mrs. Bellinger. I am the trustee. I know what the trust holds."

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