The Runaway Bride Is Marrying His Billionaire Boss novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Terms

Laurence came down the stairs behind me in last night's trousers and nothing else.

He saw Shelby at the table, stopped, and went back up.

He returned a minute later in a shirt.

"I'll make coffee," he said, to nobody.

"There's a percolator in the cupboard," I said. "My mother's. Marlene never threw it out."

"Of course she didn't."

He filled it at the sink and lit the burner, and he kept his back to us.

I sat across from Shelby.

Her eyes were swollen, and her suitcase stood by the door with a garment bag laid over it.

"I'm leaving today," she said. "I wanted to say it to your face."

"Where are you going?"

"My aunt's, in Grand Rapids. She said I can have the spare room." She pushed a ring of keys across the table. "These are the house keys. All of them. I took the spares out of Mom's drawer."

I looked at the keys.

I did not touch them yet.

"I'm not asking for anything," Shelby said. "I'm not asking for money or the house, and I'm not asking you to forgive me. I know I don't get any of it."

"Then what is the plea?"

"Don't let Mom be the only one who pays."

I sat back.

"I went to the sheriff at seven this morning," she said. "I gave him a statement about the hallway and the wedge and what she said to me in my room. I told him what I did, too. I took the pearls. I lived in this house and let you be called a thief."

"You told him all of it?"

"All of it. He said I might be charged with something small." Her chin shook. "I told him I'd rather be."

Laurence set a mug down in front of her.

She stared at it.

"Drink that," he said, and went back to the stove.

"I don't know what to do with you," I said.

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