I pull the glass door open to the only bank on the island. Halli and the FBI agent follow me. Nothing screams something is wrong like having people follow you everywhere. I wanted to avoid the stares, but with these two it’s inevitable.
I stop walking, and Halli bumps into me. Spinning, I glare at the two of them. “Can you guys wait outside? I’m closing out my bank account.”
Halli’s eyes scan the tiny dingy bank where only two people are working behind the desk. Other than that, the place is empty.
“Aspen, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jason says. I guess we’re on a first name basis now.
“Well, I don’t recall inviting you here to begin with,” I snap back.
“It’s fine,” Halli says, pushing him back out the door. “We’ll be waiting out here for you.”
As the door closes, I hear him arguing with her. I roll my eyes as I walk to the counter. Ideas of how to ditch him come to mind.
“Aspen, it’s good to see you,” one teller says. “What can we help you with today?”
“I need to close my account.”
She does a courtesy nod and starts typing. After a quick check of my ID, even though she’s known me since I was a child, she prints out a check. “You just need to sign right here.” She pushes a paper to me and points where I need to sign to close out everything. When she hands me my check she says, “Wait here, I have one more thing for you.”
I watch her disappear into the back room. The other worker smiles at me and I return it, but wonder what else she needs to give me. The room is stuffy and warm as they only rely on a fan in the corner of the compact bank to circulate the air. Glancing down at my check, I gasp out loud and whip around.
“Um… there’s been a mistake.”
I’ve deposited every cent I’ve earned. And before I left, I knew exactly how much I had because I deposited the money that Ryker gave me.
This is not that amount.
Jacque comes out from the back, and I wave the check at her. “Something is wrong.” She takes the check and looks it over, but hands it back.
“What’s wrong with it, Aspen?”
My eyes bounce around the bank like some manic person. “That’s way too much money.”
Like an extra two zeroes at the end too much.
She laughs. “Your father said you would say that.” She holds out a sealed envelope, my name scribbled across the front. It’s my dad’s handwriting.
Not wanting to open it here, I take it from her and fold it in half with the check and stuff it in my purse. It feels like my purse weighs a million pounds.
Or make that two million.
“All set?”
I nod, hurrying past them down the street. The last thing I want to do is tell them what happened without reading the letter first.
“Aspen, are you all right?” Halli asks, running to catch up with me.
“Yeah. I’m just exhausted. Can we go rest?”
She doesn’t question me, but she knows something happened. As soon as we make it to our hut, I dash to the bathroom and lock the door. With a quick deep breath, I sit on the toilet and tear open the letter.
Aspen,
If you’re reading this, you have cleared out your account. The little extra money is yours. I never spent a dime of the money they gave me for your hit, plus the interest. It wasn’t mine to spend as I didn’t deserve it. But you do. Think of it as restitution for me stealing your life. I still have no regrets. Go spread your wings, Manu. The world is yours now.
Love,
Dad
The brief letter feels like a life’s worth of words. I need to dissect each sentence again.
A little extra? No. A lot extra.
Money for my hit? I don’t know how I feel about having the money that someone paid him to kill me.
Stealing my life and no regrets? Do I deserve this money? Is it even legal?
I jump at a knock at the door. “Aspen are you okay?”
Leaning over, I turn the knob and pull the door open. As soon as Halli catches sight of my tear-stained face, she kneels. “What happened at the bank?”
I’m not sure if I should show her the letter, but I’d rather find out now if the money is illegal. I hand her the