Five Years of Secret Love, He Married My Best Friend novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Pack Watches
We read the file in the hall, at the head table, with the pack standing along the walls.
The iron key turned in the lock with a dry click.
Inside was a single folded page in a hand I knew from every book in the records house.
It was Winifred's handwriting, twenty years younger.
I read it aloud, because there was nobody I trusted to read it better.
"Cast out of Redfern Ridge by the Elder's word: one daughter of the pack, for refusing the vow arranged for her."
My voice stopped.
Jarrett's hand closed on my shoulder.
"Go on," the chair said quietly.
"Born on the ridge and raised in the hall."
"She would not take the vow the Elder chose for her, and she said so in front of the pack."
"The Elder put her out at the line. The council was not asked to seal it."
I read the last line twice.
"Her daughter, a child of six, went out with her and will be called a stray's. Hold the file. Never mention the mother's birth."
A silence fell that I could feel on my skin.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Five Years of Secret Love, He Married My Best Friend are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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