I Married the Don for the Debt, and My Husband Walked In Alive novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Counter

"There she is," Julien said, sliding off my flour table. "We were worried."

I stood in my own back door with my apron strings still in my hand.

The ovens were off, the dough racks were empty, and my kitchen smelled of cold sugar.

"Get off my table," I said.

"Camille." Odette did not turn from the counter. "Come here and take off that coat."

It was Rafe's coat, the one he had put on me at the levee, and I had worn it from the car without thinking.

"How did you get in?"

"I have had a key to this shop since the day you opened it," Odette said. "I paid for the first oven."

That was true, and I hated that it was true.

She faced me then, small and upright in her church hat, her white gloves folded over each other.

"Julien told me what you said on the levee. That you're the Don's wife."

"I am."

"You are a Beaumont wife," Odette said. "A Beaumont wife goes home to her husband's table. That marriage you signed is a sin and a piece of paper, and the Church will not hold it."

"The Church married me to him on Saturday."

"The Church married you to a widow's lie. You were never a widow."

"I didn't know that," I said, and my voice shook.

"Now you do."

Julien came around the table and put a hand on my arm.

His palm was damp.

"Baby, think about it. Mama's right. I'll talk to the Society, I'll talk to the priest. We'll tell them I was kidnapped, that he held me. Nobody has to know what happened."

I looked at his hand on my sleeve.

"Take it off."

"Cam," he said.

"Take it off."

He did.

I walked to the front of the shop, past the pastry case, and I unlocked the register.

I took out the day's float and the register key and put both in my apron pocket.

Then I unlocked the front door and held it open, and the cold air came in smelling of the street.

"The shop is closed," I said.

"Camille, be reasonable," Odette said.

"I am the only person in this building who has been reasonable for eight months. Get out, Mama Odette. Take your son."

"I paid for that oven," Odette said.

"Then I'll buy you another one. Out."

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