Old Money Madness

37. On Lover's Lips

River

"Clyde ran the interview with Daisy today." Dox sat down next to me on his leather couch. 

"Why?" 

"She did it because she felt that she was not getting enough pay for how she was treated. She tried to off you because she thought that you've never had to go through any real struggles in life. Her exact words were, 'She's just an entitled princess that no one can seem to deny.'"

"Sounds about right." I moved my head to sit on his shoulder. "What do we do now?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"We were always hanging out together because of the case, now what do we do?" 

"River, I was thinking about going to New York." 

"To your old job?" 

"Yes, I have a chance to be chief. I also want you to come with me, be a writer in New York." 

I closed my eyes and imagined the Knight mansion, I could never live there again. Those halls have blood seeped into them. "I think I'd like that." 

"Really? You'll drop this whole town to come run away with me to the big apple?" 

"This town means so little to me now." I looked out of Dox's large window. All that was around us were tall trees. Each disappearing into the low cloud bank. "Can we live outside of the city?" 

"You don't want to be in the center of all the action?" 

"Nope. I think it's about time I stop being this heir of the Knight fortune, and just being the pain in the ass to everyone I meet." 

"What are you going to do with your house and business?" 

"I'm leaving the business to Lucy and Beth, and I'm going to let the Knight mansion get old and dusty and one day some teenagers will sneak through it looking for ghosts or something." 

"All of the Knights are leaving?"

"There is nothing here anymore, I'm letting Janine have my spot on the council, not a cent of my money though." 

"Well, tomorrow, we can go back to your house and grab all of your stuff. You'll have to make sure you grab all of your papers for your book." 

I got up from our little spot on the couch and went over to my bag. Inside there was a dark green notebook. Very worn with coffee spilled on it and nail marks from when I've gripped it so hard, I'd thought it was destroyed. In my hands now, it looked like my whole life started in between these two cardboard covers. 

"It's done." I smiled tracing my finger over the grooves. 

"Your book?" Dox came up from behind me and placed his hands over mine. "How?"

"I wrote in between the noise, the voices, and the fire. When all was quiet or you were asleep next to me." 

"What's it called?" 

"All the ways to say I've been loved by you." 

"Kind of a long title." He turned me around to have his lip inches from mine. 

"I always knew what I wanted to call it. From the moment you looked into my eyes and told me you were excited to get started on my murder case." 

"Wasn't the best start to our story." 

"Look at the dedication."

Dox takes the book from my hands and flips it over, opening it to the second page.