Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,8
either. I’m just… why am I here?
“Good. I’m glad.” He folds his hands on his desk, smiles at me.
This is so weird. There are dozens of students out in the reception area waiting their turn for a meeting with him, and yet we’re in here just staring at each other.
His smile falls. And then he’s frowning at me.
“I’m sorry. Did I do something wrong? Is that why you wanted to see me?”
“Wrong? Dear, God, no. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m so sorry about your mother, Cadee.”
“Oh.” I shrink a little. Kinda go inside myself with the reminder of my recent loss.
“I wanted to make sure you were OK. You have a place to stay?”
And here we go. I knew this was why I was here.
“I know you’re living in the attic apartment. But you and your mother were getting ready to move today, so I just want to make sure—”
“Wait. What? What did you just say?”
He looks confused for a moment. “Moving?”
“We weren’t moving out today.”
He cocks his head at me. “I’m fairly sure you were. Your mother put in notice two months ago.”
“Notice for what?”
“She quit.”
“She… quit?” These words do not make sense to me.
“Oh.” He pauses, frowns sadly at me with tight lips. “You didn’t know.”
“No. I had no idea.”
He draws in a breath and squints at me. “There are movers at the inn.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No!” I say it forcefully. “I was literally just at home an hour ago. We weren’t packing. We’re not moving!”
“I…” He hesitates. “I got a call from campus security. The movers arrived thirty minutes ago and no one was there, so he let them in. They are packing up your apartment as we speak.”
“What?” I stand up.
“Sit,” he commands. “We’re not done here. And as you can see by my reception area, I have a lot of other issues to deal with this morning.”
“But my stuff is—”
“I’ll make a call.” He slides his hand inside his suit coat, pulls out his phone, and taps the screen. “Yes. Can you please tell me what is happening at the Hunter apartment?” He nods to whatever the other person is saying. Looks at me. Looks away. “Thank you.” He ends the call. “I’m afraid it’s all loaded on the truck. They just pulled away.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “That’s not possible! No one can pack up an entire apartment in thirty minutes.”
“You didn’t own the furniture. It was just clothes and such?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I’m afraid it’s gone. Your mother did have plans.” He shrugs. “I’m sure it will all arrive safely.”
“Arrive where?”
“I don’t know.” He must see the panic on my face because he says, “I’ll make a call and find out for you. Don’t worry.”
“What? No! This is not happening!”
He holds up a finger. “Give me a moment, please.” He makes his call without waiting for my approval. “Sheriff, can you run down a truck for me? It just left the Alumni Inn with Cadee Hunter’s things inside it.” He listens for a moment. “Oh.”
“What?”
“Oh. I see.”
“What? What is he saying?”
The Chairman hushes me with a sharp look. “OK. I will let her know. Thank you.”
“Let me know what?”
“Well, apparently you were moving to North Dakota.”
I laugh. There is simply nothing else to do.
“I’m serious, Cadee. That truck is on its way to North Dakota. The sheriff already looked into it. He thought it was suspicious as well, but they produced paperwork. Your mother bought a house there.”
“In North Dakota?”
“Yes.” He looks concerned for a moment. “It’s an odd choice. Isn’t it?”
“Odd? No. This is crazy. None of this is happening. Tell the sheriff to make them turn around.”
“I’m afraid I can’t. There is no legal reason.”
“The legal reason is that they stole my stuff!”
He frowns at me. “Cadee, I have to say, I wasn’t expecting you to be so… combative. You’ve never been a problem before.”
“What?” I just blink at him.
But before I can string together some sort of cognizant response to that completely bizarre statement, he says, “Your things were not stolen. The movers and packers had a work order. It was all done in good faith.”
“Chairman Valcourt, respectfully, my mother is dead! Her orders don’t matter anymore.”
He walks across the room and takes the seat across from me at the tea table. “I didn’t want to bring this up, but this move was spelled out in the will.”
“What?” I just stare at him. “No. It wasn’t. I went to the reading a few days ago. I was there. I inherited… well, nothing. We