My Husband Pretended to Love Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Not a Prize

I sat on the floor of the walk-in cooler for an hour after he left, because it was the only quiet place in the building.

The voice found me there.

"You have heard the terms," it said. "Do you accept the reopening?"

"Say them again."

"If you accept, the verdict is heard before the room that forgot you. His words are weighed against what he holds. If they match, your name returns to everyone."

"And if I say no?"

"Then the erasure stands. You keep your new life. He keeps his memory of you, alone, for as long as he lives."

I put my forehead on my knees.

The cooler hummed, and the cold came up through my jeans.

For a moment I wanted to say yes so badly my teeth hurt.

Then I thought of ten years of Sunday pancakes, and the man who had told Lydia they were all a job.

I thought of him in the rain with my ring, and how easily he had said sorry once there was nothing left to lose.

"He doesn't get to win me by remembering," I said.

"He did not choose to remember."

"I know. That's why it's not a prize. It's a fact about him."

"You are refusing the appeal."

"I'm refusing to be a reward," I said. "Ask me again when I want my name back for me."

The voice was quiet for a long moment.

"The contract asks nothing of you," it said. "It only waits."

I climbed up off the floor, and my hand with the cut on it throbbed all the way to the elbow.

In the morning, Dolly was sitting at the counter before opening, with her glasses on the chain and a spiral notebook in front of her.

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