When the Billionaire Begs novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Cashier's Check

The Keswick estate had forty windows, and all of them were lit.

I walked up the gravel drive in the ivory dress.

Veronica had ordered me to wear it once, and I wanted to wear it here on my own terms.

Stellan walked beside me with a leather folder under his arm.

"Still sure?" he said.

"I've never been surer of anything."

"I'll be at the car when you want me."

"Stay in the room."

"Then I'll stay in the room."

The ballroom held three hundred people.

Chandeliers, a string quartet, ice sculptures of swans.

Weeks ago I had sat at the far end of a long table in this house.

That night I was told I was sensible.

A hush started at the doors and spread across the floor as I came in.

Everyone knew my face now.

Phones had passed from hand to hand for a week.

Every guest in that room had watched Veronica say it.

At the head of the room, Carlton stood beside a microphone in a black dinner jacket.

His mother was nowhere beside him.

Then I saw her, at a side table, alone, in dark blue silk.

Nobody sat with her.

Her glass of champagne stood untouched, and when she saw me, she lifted her chin.

I did not look away from her, and I did not stop walking.

"Claire," Carlton said into the microphone, and the quartet fell silent. "Thank you for coming."

"I said I would."

"You did."

Behind him a lawyer in a gray suit shifted his weight.

It was the same man who had texted me the six hundred forty thousand dollars.

"Mr. Keswick, if I may," he began.

"Sit down, counselor."

The lawyer sat.

I took the folder from Stellan and opened it on the table at the front of the ballroom.

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