He Gave Me $18, So I Left Him with Nothing novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: One Hour

Clark's POV

On the last night of October, Katie signed the notice at my sister's kitchen table.

It was one page, in the legal aid lawyer's plain type.

The Owner ends the management agreement of this date, effective on delivery.

She wrote Katherine Brandt at the bottom, and she did not write Gaffney.

I watched her pen.

I had spent five years wishing I had stood at that church door and made them move me.

I had spent two weeks wishing I could carry the whole yard on my back so she wouldn't have to.

"I'm going in alone," she said.

She did not look up from the page.

"We talked about this."

"We talked about you being in the room."

"I don't want Constance looking at you instead of me." She capped the pen. "You wait outside with the crew's families. When I open the front door, you all come in."

"Katie."

"It's my table."

"It was your father's table."

"Then it's twice mine."

I put both hands flat on the wood.

It was the same hand that had stacked cedar for ten years, and it was shaking.

"Last time, two cousins turned me from the church door, and I went and stood by a maple tree for an hour," I said. "I watched you walk out on his arm. I didn't come back over. I've been paying for it for five years."

She finally lifted her eyes.

"I know."

"Do you? I let two cousins in suits tell me what you wanted."

"Clark."

"I will not do it again."

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