My Son Is the Secret That Will Break Them novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Ledger

The hall was full at sunrise, and nobody had told it to be.

They stood along the walls and out through the doors, because the benches had filled before dawn.

Arlo was at the healer's cottage with her kettle and a plate of toast, under the eye of my investigator, who had been stitched, bandaged and told to sit.

Cora was brought in last.

She wore plain grey, with her wrists in the elders' iron cuffs, and her hair was down.

Nobody gave her a handkerchief.

The Alpha sat in his own chair, upright, with Torin on his left.

I took the floor with a green ledger under my arm.

"This is the relief fund's book," I said. "Rowan brought it from the front office before dawn, with the elders watching. Cora has said the fund kept this pack fed. I'd like to read what it fed."

"This is theater," Cora said.

Her voice was her own now, flat and clear.

She had stopped pretending to cry.

"Then it's short," I said, and opened the book.

I read the first line.

"Monthly, to the fund, from the Maddox bloodline account, the sum of Thea Harrow's stipend. Sixty months."

I turned the page.

"Monthly, from the widows' share account, to the relief fund. The share of a fisherman's widow."

A woman in the third row, grey-haired, with a net-maker's hands, looked up sharply.

I read the next line, and another woman stood.

Then another.

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

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