He Traded Me for Land, Now I Write the Rules novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Last Page

Everett shut the study door behind us and didn't sit.

"After," I had said in the hall that morning.

It was after.

"Say it," I told him.

He took a bound copy of the rail yard deed out of the desk drawer and put it on the blotter between us.

It was the one I had written, with my own yellow tab on the last page.

"I asked for you by name for two reasons," Everett said. "The first one I gave you in the car."

"You wanted to meet the person who beat you on paper."

"That was true. It wasn't all of it."

I waited.

"The land won't move without a signature that isn't mine and isn't Damon's." He kept his eyes on mine. "I knew that in June. I knew whose it was."

"Whose?"

"Open the last page."

I didn't.

"The second reason," he said, "is that a woman under Damon's protection could be told by Damon what to sign. So my price had three parts. End the entry. Withdraw the protection. Send her to my house."

"The second one was for him, not for me."

"The second one was so he couldn't order your hand." He swallowed. "I told myself that was kind."

I stared at him.

"You knew the first night. In the library. When you read rule five twice."

"I knew."

"And you signed it."

"I signed it while breaking it." He didn't look away. "That's the cost. I should have said it that night, and I said it today, and today is too late."

I picked up the deed and turned it over in my hands.

"You told me too late," I said.

"Yes."

"I might have said yes if you'd asked me that first night."

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