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Nodding my head, I bit down on my lip to stop the tears that spouted in my eyes. Reaching forward, I pulled Benson into my arms. He was such a good man.
He softened under my touch, hesitatingly wrapping two arms around me, allowing the hug. He'd always been kind, but not too touchy feely. I squeezed him tight, my heart pouring with gratitude.
Maybe there was something in there that would explain everything.
I felt hope for the first time since I'd gotten that dreaded news about the will. "Thank you," I gushed, feeling like Benson had given me a gift greater than anyone else.
Somehow, I had a feeling he'd just given me my father back.
CHAPTER 13
Summer
Once again, I stood before a sleek, modern bank, file in hand. Stomach churning with nerves and anticipation.
For days, I’d dug through dad's secret office, increasingly convinced that something shady was going on.
Why the hidden room? Had my mother known about it?
Why the banker's strange reaction to my last name?
And lastly, was there something bad actually going on, just as Rook claimed? Why chase me away? Why did he even care what I did?
Questions I was determined to find the answers to.
And, until I had them, I decided to wait to tell Callie.
She would kill me if she knew everything I’d done, especially at my botched attempt to bribe that creep at Southeastern Financial with sex.
I had to take care of her, no matter how many failures were already piling up.
As I approached the building, I smoothed down my deep blue, velvet dress, hoping no one would notice the coffee stain—my dad’s old Mercedes had unexpectedly jerked. The thing had a mind of its own. And, since it had no air conditioning, I had to keep the windows rolled down, and now my hair looked like a frizzy bird's nest.
In other words, I looked like I’d just emerged from the forest, instead of the polished look I’d hoped to present.
The Magnolia, inscribed in gold on the black, iron doors, along with the same symbol on a letter in my father’s office—an OV over a magnolia flower—told me I was in the right place.
Below it, in smaller letters, read a Chapter of the Obscura Veritas.
A breeze whipped through my hair and I scurried through the doors to keep it from getting even worse.
As soon as I stepped inside, the sweet smell of the same flowers filled my nose.
"May I help you?" A young woman with deep ebony skin and an icy-blue, Caesar-cut hairstyle, crooked a perfectly shaped eyebrow at me. Her words, perfectly polite, but her tone reflected the opposite. Her thumb was poised over the slate of glass covering the display screen of her phone.
She was sitting at a large desk in the middle of the room.
I made my way towards her over a glossy, obsidian-black floor—so clean, I could see a distorted reflection of myself, staring back at me.
I looked wide-eyed and nervous.
I blinked the thought away, forcing my shoulders and face to relax.
"Hi, I, uh—“ I shuffled, the butterflies in my stomach flitting as her eyes followed the wild tangle of my hair down to my shoulders and...right on to the coffee stain.
I cleared my throat, trying to pull her attention away from it. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure, is this a bank?"
Her russet brown eyes narrowed in on mine. "Are you lost?" She glanced at the file folder clutched tightly to my chest—I was now using it as a shield to hide the coffee stain.
