Chapter 16: Paid in Full

Cora's POV

He knocked on the diner's back door at twenty to four.

I had been sitting on a flour crate in the dark kitchen since one, with the lights off and my phone in my hand.

I opened the door and he stood there with his collar torn and blood down his chin.

"Don't," he said. "I know how I look."

I pulled him in by his shirt.

I sat him on the crate under the one bulb and wet a clean rag at the sink.

His lip was split in two places, and there was a swelling over his ribs where someone had put a boot.

I cleaned the blood off his mouth, and he flinched and held still.

He told it fast, with the rag against his mouth, and I did not interrupt once.

When he got to the part where Leopold said he would let us walk in, I put the rag down.

"He wants us in the house."

"Both of you, on your own feet. He thinks that's the cleverest part."

"Then it's the part we use."

"Cora."

"Let me finish being angry first."

He stopped.

I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.

"Three years," I said. "You stood by that dining room door. I passed you the salad dressing. You nodded at me every night and I said good evening."

"Yes."

"You didn't tell me your father's name. You didn't tell me mine."

"I was afraid of being wrong."

"You were afraid of me," I said. "You thought I'd go to Leopold. You thought I was his."

"I did."

"And now?"

He looked up at me with that ruined mouth.

"I think you're the bravest person I've ever met, and I wasted three years on a bad guess."

I thought about what to do with that.

I wanted to be fair, and I did not want to be soft.

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