Chapter 22: Signed

Lena's POV

The next morning, I went back to the house on Alder Street one last time.

Maeve drove. She parked at the curb, turned off the engine and looked at the porch where Neil had stood in his gray fleece.

"Do you want me to come in?"

"I want you to carry boxes," I said. "And to stop me if I start crying over a toaster."

"I can do both."

The front door was unlocked.

Alister sat at the kitchen table with his tie folded in his pocket and a cup of coffee he had not touched.

The kitchen was just as I'd left it. The blue apron with the chipped button hung on its hook by the stove.

I put the folder down in front of him.

"It's the divorce petition," I said. "My lawyer wrote it."

I kept my hands flat on the folder.

"I'm asking for nothing from you. You'll sign what the firm needs to stay clean."

He opened the folder and read the first page.

He read the second.

"You're not asking for any of it," he said.

"It's all in my name already. You made sure of that."

"I did it so you'd be safe."

"You did it so I'd stay," I said. "Those aren't the same."

He didn't answer.

I handed him the pen.

It was the pen I had used for seven years on Christmas cards, tax forms and whatever else he handed me.

He held it over the page for a while.

"Can I ask you something?" he said.

"You can ask."

"Did you ever see anything for me? Not at the end. At the beginning."