My Fiancé Chose His Ex, So I Chose Myself novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Forty-Eight

Clint didn't cross the street until I came out onto the sidewalk.

Then he looked both ways and crossed.

Bonnie came out behind me and stood in the shop doorway with her arms folded and her tape measure around her neck.

"I'm not leaving," she said.

The drizzle had thinned to nothing. 6th Avenue was busy with lunch traffic.

The pho place had its door propped open, and two cooks in aprons were smoking under the awning, watching us.

Clint stopped in front of me on the wet sidewalk.

He held the envelope in both hands.

"I won't take long," he said.

"Okay."

He held it out.

I didn't take it right away.

"Open it," he said. "Please."

I took it and opened it.

Inside was a cashier's check from a bank downtown.

Pay to the order of Edie Lansing.

Forty-eight thousand dollars and no cents.

I read the number three times.

My hands had started to shake, and I hated that, so I held the check against my stomach to keep it still.

"The investor paid sixty under asking," Clint said. "After the mortgage, there was sixty-three left. That's forty-eight of it."

"Clint."

"It was always yours. I knew it was yours the day you wrote the first check to the cabinet guy. I let you put it in my walls because it meant you'd never leave." He swallowed. "That's the truth. I've had a lot of time to find out what the truth is lately."

Behind me, Bonnie made a small sound.

Clint looked at the sidewalk, then made himself look up at me.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?"

I wanted to hear him say it. Every piece of it.

He knew that.

He nodded.

"For the porch, four times." His voice was steady, which surprised me. "For the cop."

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