The Heir Who Quit Luxury novel · Chapter 8 of 32
Chapter 8: Bloomfield Hills
The superstore sold eleven cars its first day.
We sold one.
On Monday I drove to Bloomfield Hills.
The Penrose house sat at the end of a gravel drive half a mile long, gray stone with black shutters.
The last time I'd been inside it, I was eight and my mother had brought me to her mother's funeral.
Somebody had told me not to touch the banister.
The housekeeper opened the door before I knocked.
"Mr. Penrose is in the study," she said. "He said you'd come."
I walked through the front hall.
My grandfather's portrait hung over the fireplace, twenty years younger and twice as cold.
Hollis sat behind a desk the size of my truck, reading a newspaper.
He didn't look up.
"You've come to beg," he said.
"I've come to tell you to keep your money off Eight Mile."
He folded the paper.
"Sit."
"I'll stand."
"Then stand." He took off his reading glasses. "The superstore is Carter's toy. He came to me with a plan to put a Doyle's out of business, and I let him have it."
"Why?"
"To see what you'd do."
"Sell cars."
"Badly. One on Saturday, I'm told."
Of course he knew.
He probably knew what I'd had for breakfast.
"Here's what I'll do," Hollis said. "Take the name today. Theodore Penrose. Carter's allowance stops tomorrow, the superstore closes, and your mechanic girl keeps her little lot. One phone call."
"No."
He looked almost pleased.
"You're very like your mother."
"Thank you."
"It wasn't a compliment."
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