My Stepfather Sold Me at the Card Table, and the Man Who Won Me Never Looked My Way novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Pen
I took the pen, and I took the bond out of my pocket, and I tore it across in front of them all.
It was a soft old sheet, folded and refolded, with one corner already gone.
It tore with a small dry sound.
I tore it again.
I held the four pieces up in the light of the hall, with his leaning signature on two and my small hand on the others.
Tenant, not property.
Then I let them go.
They fell on the boards at my feet, and the whole hall rose.
I had not expected it.
Four hundred people stood up in a clatter of folding chairs, and the sound that came off them was not a cheer.
It was lower than that.
It was the sound a hill makes when it lets out a breath it has held for nine years.
The old men on the long bench got to their feet one by one.
The woman from the bakery was crying.
The man from the funeral home, who had turned his shoulder on the steps, came up the aisle with his hat in his hand.
He stopped below the stage.
"Miss Tierney," he said. "I carried your mother's casket. I'd like to say I'm sorry."
I could not answer him.
I nodded.
I stood on that stage and shook hands for an hour.
Cormick stood a pace behind me and to the side, and he said nothing, and he did not leave.
At eleven Enid came and took my arm.
"Home, love," she said. "You've done enough."
We drove up Granite Street in the truck, the three of us, in silence.
It had begun to snow again, large soft flakes in the headlights, and the Orphan Girl headframe stood over the roofs with its single red lamp.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepfather Sold Me at the Card Table, and the Man Who Won Me Never Looked My Way are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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