Not Every Home Is Meant to Be Returned To novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Main Street
Lacey was waiting on the sidewalk with a small velvet box in both hands.
I had run the whole way from Alder Lane, and I stopped in front of her with my chest burning.
"You came," she said.
"You told me to."
"I didn't think you would."
She pushed the shop door open with her shoulder, and a bell rang.
The jeweler was a gray-haired man in shirtsleeves, bent over a tray of watch parts.
He looked up and smiled.
"Miss Tindall. Is something wrong with the necklace?"
"No," Lacey said. "I want to return it."
She set the box on the glass counter and opened it.
The necklace lay on white satin, a thin gold chain with a diamond the size of a pea.
The jeweler's smile faded. "It was a graduation gift. Your father said so."
"My father paid for it with money that wasn't his."
I opened my wallet and put my school ID on the counter beside the box.
"That's my name on the account he used," I said. "Hazel Tindall."
The jeweler picked up the ID and looked at it for a long moment.
Then he turned and took a folder out of a drawer.
"The check was drawn on a custodial education account," he said slowly. "I remember thinking it was an odd way to pay for jewelry. Your father said it was a family arrangement."
"It wasn't."
He read the folder. He turned a page.
"I can refund it in full, less a ten percent restocking fee, within thirty days. That is forty-six hundred eighty dollars." He cleared his throat. "The refund would go to the account holder. That's the rule for checks."
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