Page 56 of His Juliet

“Close enough. What do you need?”

I took a deep breath. “I need you to help me create a fake letter notifying someone they’ve won money.”

She scrunched her nose. “Oh yes, just notifying a randomsomeone, I’m sure.”

“Fine, it’s Juliet. You know, the girl you visited when I told you not to.” I glared at her, but Sienna just smiled.

“Why don’t you just give her money? Why the subterfuge?”

“I don’t think she’d take it if I gave it to her.” Especially since I’d been avoiding her. “But she deserves it. She doesn’t have a lot of money or support. She grew up in foster care.” Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have said that last part, but I couldn’t get the image of her as a child, alone in the world, out of my head.

“Oohh, okay.” Sienna rubbed her hands together. “I get it now. This is fun! We need to find something believable that she could have won. If it’s a contest, we have to get her to enter it first.” She drummed her fingers on her chin. “What kind of things is she into that she might enter for a contest?”

“She loves reading.”

“I guess it could be a book contest with a cash prize. I could create a landing page and newsletter and send it to her, although there’s no guarantee she would enter.”

I leaned back on the couch with a groan. “Why is it so fucking complicated to give someone money?”

“How much are you thinking?” she asked, pulling out her phone.

“I don’t know. What’s realistic? Like half a million?”

Sienna snorted a laugh. “Do you also think a banana costs ten dollars?”

“What?”

“Never mind,” she said with a grin. “I don’t know that a book contest prize could be more than a couple thousand.”

I scowled. That wasn’t enough. Juliet deserved everything.

“Oh!” Sienna said, sitting up. “Foster care! We could say there’s some sort of grant for New York City residents who have aged out of the system. That way, she wouldn’t have to enter, and we might get away with giving away like ten thousand.”

“Can you make it happen so she can’t trace it and it looks legitimate?”

“Yeah, for sure,” she said. “I can just wire her the money so she can’t reject it.”

“Don’t you need her bank information for that?”

She shot me a scathing look, and I raised my hands in a placating gesture. “Not doubting your prowess.”

“Maybe that’s the way to go, then. Just send me the ten grand and I’ll write up an official-looking letter, mail it to her, and wire the money.”

“Thanks.” I pulled out my phone to transfer the money, even though I wished it were ten times the amount. What could ten grand even buy these days?

“When are you going to let us meet her?”

I scowled. “You already met her.”

“Yeah, and she’s awesome. I want to be friends. You should bring her over for dinner.”

My jaw clenched and I tapped my fingers against my leg. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. I’m not sure I’m going to continue seeing her.”

Sienna’s face fell. “Wait, why?”

“You and Sofiya have been stuck inside this apartment for weeks because of threats against you. Juliet isn’t in our world. How can I justify bringing her into it? It would completely change her life and expose her to danger.”

Her eyes were soft. “You really care about her.”

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