Chapter 22 - THE OFFER ELI REFUSESDante placed a check in front of Eli.
The amount was larger than anything the boy could imagine.
Eli stared.
“What’s that?”
“For you.”
“No.”
Dante almost laughed.
Again.
“You haven’t even looked.”
“I can see numbers.”
“You earned it.”
“No.”
“You changed my daughter’s life.”
Eli shook his head.
“Rosalie changed it.”
“You came.”
“So?”
Dante stared.
“Do all Mercers refuse money?”
Grace, standing nearby, smiled.
“Apparently.”
Dante sighed.
“What do you want?”
Eli looked at Grace.
Then at Dante.
“A place where Mom doesn’t have to move again.”
Grace immediately said:
“Eli.”
“What?”
“That’s not his responsibility.”
Eli looked embarrassed.
Dante asked:
“Anything else?”
“School.”
“What about school?”
“I missed a lot.”
Dante nodded.
That he could solve without buying a conscience.
He arranged tutoring through a scholarship program.
Not personally owned.
Not dependent on Dante’s favor.
Grace secured an apartment with her salary and standard housing assistance.
Dante quietly covered the security deposit through a charitable family emergency fund available to multiple employees.
Grace accepted only after verifying others qualified too.
“You are impossible,” Dante told her.
She smiled.
“So you’ve said.”
Eli did accept one thing.
A new pair of sneakers.
Rosalie chose them.
May you like
Blue.
He wore them everywhere.
