Page 151 of Choosing You

“Oh, no, that’s okay. I don’t mind staying here.”

“You can’t stay here. They turn the heat down during breaks. You’ll freeze. I’ll have a room set up for you at the house.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Garret stares at him like he doesn’t know him.

“What about Thanksgiving dinner?” Mr. Kensington asks Garret.

“I’ll take her somewhere. I’m sure some restaurants will be open.”

“Charles will be at the house. I’ll have him make dinner. Unless you want to go to the club. They’ll be open.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure something out.”

“Anything else you need before I leave? You need any help with this mess?”

I almost pass out. Now he wants to help clean up my room?

“No. We can handle it,” Garret answers. “But thanks for offering.”

“Jade, I’m truly sorry this happened. This is normally a very safe campus. If you need anything, just call. Garret, give her my private number, not the main one. Katherine doesn’t know I stopped by today and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Okay. Bye, Dad.”

“Bye, Mr. Kensington,” I say as he walks out.

Garret and I don’t speak again until we see his dad in the parking lot.

“What was that about?” I’m whispering for some reason.

“I have no idea. Who the hell was that and what did he do with my dad?”

“He actually told you to stay here with me for Thanksgiving. And to stay at your house!”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t get it. But I’m not going to worry about it right now.” He steps over a pile of clothes to my desk. “So the guy took out every drawer but this one. He wanted to make it clear that he was here for the letter.”

“I guess.” I join Garret at the desk. He opens the drawer and moves some papers aside. “I’ve already looked. It’s not in there.”

“What’s this?” He holds up a small piece of paper. Written in red marker are the words,Keep Silent. Silence is rewarded.“Did you write this, Jade?”

“No.” I snatch the paper from him and read it again. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Here, sit down.”

I take his place on the chair and stare at the piece of paper.

“What should I do? Should I tell Frank? But this says to stay silent.”

He hesitates. “Maybe we should tell my dad.”

I set the piece of paper down. “Are you crazy? Why would we do that?”

“Come here.” He goes over to my bed and pushes the mattress back on it so we can sit down. “My dad deals with this kind of shit all the time. Threats from people he doesn’t know. The cops are never involved. He just takes care of it. I don’t know exactly how, but he gets them to go away.”

Although Garret has mentioned this before, I still don’t understand what he means. It’s like his family’s part of the mafia or something. But Garret assures me that this is how it works in wealthy families. People are always using threats and blackmail to try to get money from rich people, and the rich people somehow get them to go away. Getting the police involved would only bring publicity to the problem and wealthy people don’t want that type of publicity.

“I don’t want your dad involved in this. Besides, this should end now. Like you said, the guy got what he wanted. Any evidence of what happened that night is gone.”

“You’re not gone.”

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