One Kiss, the Billionaire's Bride novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Plain Word

Rosalind knocked on the back door of the bakery at ten to five the next morning.

Bryony opened it with flour to her elbows and did not step aside.

Her mother stood in the alley light in a cardigan and a raincoat, holding a cream envelope in both hands.

"I'm not here to explain," Rosalind said. "I'm here to say it once, and then I'll go if you want me to."

"Say it."

"I took money to put you in front of a stranger. I let Dwight terrify you, so you'd run. I told myself it was for you, and it was for me. I couldn't stand the building going, and I couldn't stand that I'd lost it."

Bryony's hands were still.

"I sold you," Rosalind said. "It was wrong. I'm not asking you to forgive it."

It was the first plain sentence her mother had said to her face in twenty-four years.

Bryony leaned on the doorframe, and found it was holding her up.

"Why now?"

"Because you stood in front of that truck, and you wouldn't let me pay. I realized you'd rather lose the ovens than owe me for them."

"I would have."

"I know." Rosalind held out the envelope. "It's still all here. I want you to decide."

Bryony looked at it.

She thought of keeping it, and of burning it, and of mailing it back to Cordelia in a box.

Then she thought of the investigator, who had told her on the phone on Monday that Dwight Moody held notes on twenty-three other small businesses in the city.

"There's a list," she said. "The DA has it. Twenty-three families like us. Dwight bought their debts on purpose, to take their buildings."

Rosalind's eyes went wide.

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

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