Roses Revenge novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Watch

Rose's POV

I did not run, but I walked fast.

Elliot walked with me, and he did not ask where I was going.

The east gate of the courthouse opened onto a loading lane behind the building, with a white van backed up to a steel door.

A sheriff's deputy leaned on the van's fender with a clipboard.

Paisley was already there, alone at the far end of the lane, with her coat held shut over her stomach.

She saw me and lifted one hand.

"I came to say goodbye," she said. "I didn't want to do it in front of everyone."

"I thought you'd had enough of him."

"I have. That's why it has to be today."

The deputy glanced at his watch.

"Two minutes," he said, and went to open the van's back door.

Colton came out of the building between two officers, with his wrists chained to a belt at his waist.

When he saw us, he stopped so short that one of the officers bumped into him.

"Rose," he said. "You came."

"I came."

"I knew you would."

He had said that in his best voice, the one that used to work on me, and it came out cracked.

"I'm not here to forgive you, Colton."

"I know."

"I'm here because you've asked three times, and I wanted you to hear me say it once, without a camera."

He blinked.

"Say what?"

I took a heavy object out of my bag and held it up in the gray light.

It was a steel watch with a blue face, the one I had bought him on his thirtieth birthday and the one he had left on Aunt Bea's porch mat.

"I've carried this since Saturday," I said.

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