Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: What I Collected

The hotel heir looked at me for a long moment, then at the five men with their faces in their hands.

"What is this?" he said. "What did she say to you?"

"She's Tessa," the driver said, wiping his eyes with his wrist. "June is Tessa. She's been Tessa the whole time."

The heir laughed once, a sharp bark.

"That's not possible. Tessa had curly hair. She wore glasses."

"I had contacts made, and I straightened my hair," I said. "You did not look at me, either. I sat across from you for eighteen months."

"I looked at you every Monday."

"You looked at a woman who reminded you of someone."

He took a step back and bumped into a chair.

The arrogance drained out of his face.

"Mother said you'd be after money," he said.

"I am. I'm after what you owe me."

"We didn't take anything from you."

"You each took something," I said. "Sit down. All of you. I'll say it once."

They sat. Even the heir did.

I stayed on my feet, because if I sat I would not get up again.

"After the party I spent two nights in county lockup," I said. "A lawyer your mother paid for told me I'd get three years if I fought. He said a plea to a misdemeanor and community service would end it."

"Larceny," the senator's son whispered.

"Larceny. It's on my record. I couldn't get a job cleaning offices."

"Tess," the pianist said.

"My mother lost the gatehouse the same week. She had lived in it for twenty-two years. She was fired with no letter, and no one in town would hire a woman Constance Hollin had called a thief's mother."

The surgeon had put his hand over his eyes.

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