They Forgot My Rank, So the Lycan King Claimed Me novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Nineteen Thousand Eight Hundred

Jared was sitting on the steps outside my dormitory when I came back from the registry that evening.

He had not slept.

His uniform jacket was creased, and the scar on his chin stood out white.

He stood up when he saw me, and he did not step closer.

"I need five minutes," he said.

"You get two."

"That's fair."

He held out a thick brown envelope.

"What is that?"

"Nineteen thousand, eight hundred dollars," he said. "It's every cent I've saved as an enforcer for four years."

I did not take it.

"Poppy's envelope was twenty thousand," he said. "Yours was two hundred. I saw it in the kitchen that night and I didn't say a word."

"You knew."

"I knew," he said. "I knew your lockbox was empty, too. I saw it standing open in the hall. I saw the bracelet on her wrist the same afternoon."

"And?"

"And I didn't ask," he said. "I told myself it wasn't my business. I've told myself that about you since you were six."

His voice cracked on the last word.

I waited.

"I don't have an excuse," he said. "I'm not going to hand you one. I was your brother and I looked away. That's all."

"Why now?"

"Because I stood in that quad and watched my sister lie to the whole world," he said. "And I realized I'd never once looked at you like you might be telling the truth."

I took the envelope.

It was heavy.

"It's mine," I said. "I'm taking it because it's owed. It doesn't buy anything."

"I know."

"I don't forgive you, Jared."

"I know that, too."

"Come back when you've done something that costs more than money."

He nodded slowly.

"I gave my statement to Captain Ferris this morning," he said. "All of it. The registrar, the envelope, the bracelet. I told her what Dad said at the table."

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