His Dancer, His Chains novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Terms

He did not speak until we were in the car with the partition up.

"You lied to them," I said.

"Yes."

"You lied to nine people and a chairman, and you used me to do it."

"I used the only thing I had."

"I didn't give you permission."

"No. You didn't."

He turned toward me on the leather seat.

His voice was quiet, and it was not the voice of a man who was proud of himself.

"Thaddeus wanted you gone by lunch," he said.

"He'd have left you with nothing, and your sister's bills would still be on the table."

"I could have handled Thaddeus."

"You told nine strangers about your sister in a room that has never forgiven anyone."

That was true.

I looked out the window at the traffic and felt the shaking start in my hands.

"They'll check," I said. "They'll check the county record."

"I called my lawyer from the boardroom. He has a license waiting at the courthouse."

"If we sign tomorrow, the record shows a marriage on a date I can defend."

"You want to commit fraud."

"I want to give you a ring and a surname that make it very expensive for anyone to touch you."

"Why?"

"Because I laughed in that booth," he said.

I did not answer.

"I laughed at a joke about a woman I didn't know," he said.

"Then she walked out, and she was you. I can't undo it. I can put my name on the line."

It was an ugly, sideways kind of apology.

I did not want to want it, and I did.

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