Chapter 19: The Price

My father came into the sail loft with his hat in his hands.

Forty people watched him cross the floor.

I had seen him walk into a church, a funeral home and a bank.

I had never seen him walk like this, with his shoulders down.

He stopped at the foot of the oak table.

"Stevie," he said. "I did it for you."

"No," I said.

"I thought..."

"You did it for you. You wanted to stop watching me hurt."

"Stevie."

"You didn't care what it cost the other people."

He took that without answering.

The crew stood along the walls, and nobody coughed.

"I'll tell you what it costs," I said. "I have a price."

"Name it."

"The pier lease."

He flinched.

"Braithwaite Supply owns the land under the fuel dock and the deep-water slip."

"I know what I own."

"You held it over my husband's head last week. You'd have sold it to Lakeview to keep me from the truth."

"I would never have."

"You said you would."

He closed his mouth.

"You'll sign the lease over to Rutledge Marine," I said. "All of it. Not a rental. A deed."

"That land is worth a fortune."

"So was my marriage. You can do the sum."

Somewhere behind me, one of the foremen let out a low whistle.

Sawyer stood.

"Stevie, I don't want his land."

"I know you don't."

"You don't have to do this for me."

"I'm not," I said. "It's so nobody ever holds your fuel dock over you again."

I held out my pen.

My father looked at it for a long time.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Five Years Gone, She Walked Back In, So I Walked Out from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.