Chapter 14: Choosing

Lena climbed off his lap, pulled her sweater straight and sat at the far end of the seat.

Damian did not reach for her.

He buttoned his shirt with unsteady fingers and kept his eyes on her face.

"The day after the wedding I went to the clerk myself," he said. "I took the certificate back."

"I know. The clerk told me."

"My grandfather has men in every office that stamps a form. A filed marriage is a public record. I wanted your name off every list he could read."

"You could have told me that."

"I could have. I told you it was for your safety, and I let you hear a lie in it."

She said nothing.

Outside, a neighbor was dragging a trash can to the curb.

"In November he knew anyway," Damian said. "Your father had sold him the date and the courthouse. I didn't learn that until January."

"What happened in January?"

"He put an order on his table. I marry Cassandra Pappas, or your father goes to prison and you go on a quiet street, a woman nobody records."

"So you signed."

"I signed to buy time. And I paid your father's debt, every first of the month. The envelope was the mortgage thing."

Lena laughed once, without humor.

"I believed the mortgage thing."

"I know."

"What was the ten days?"

"Niko Pappas is in my grandfather's house, and the ledger is in his safe. I wanted both out of that building before I filed.

"I wanted to put a certificate on a clerk's counter with nothing left for him to hold over you."

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