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But sadly, Elle wasn’t there at thewith her friends, and she missed her opportunity By the ti, tired of our squabbling And Uncle Carl wasn’t actually going to meet with the man--ere supposed to have the money by that point In the end, we had to let the mark walk aith his money and ours We were screwed

This was a serious offense Bea had expected to get herwith the one Elle would be in for a beating like we’d never seen We got walloped when little things rong, so the loss of this much money was sure to elicit harsh punishment Bea once locked Jay in the basement for a week because he lost a thousand dollars, which was nothing corand Elle had just blown I needed to help her

Jay had died two years before, and I was already planningfrom jobs by that point, which was easy because I was often the "inside otiated prices with the reed on an amount, I would tell Bea it was for less and keep the difference The trick was to stash the extra ot home, so Bea wouldn’t find it My secret nook in the library was perfect for that

After two years, I’d squirreled away a hundred and fifty thousand dollars I didn’t want to have to start all over again, but ive it to her

I stuffed , then padded some of the bundles with blank paper so it would appear that there was a full two hundred in there When we brought it to Bea, she found the padding but convinced herself that the mark had done it behind her back Then, since she still ot our candy bars Without a doubt, the most expensive chocolate I’d ever eaten

After that incident, Elle shaped up and started to pay more attention to each con She kne much that ain In fact, from that point on, she became an active participant in every con and even started to help Bea with the planning She had blossorifter