The 23rd Deletion Bride novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: What It Costs

"Don't let him up," Hattie said.

"I'm not going to."

I got out of the chair, put on my coat over my pajamas, and went to the top of the back stairs.

Cullen was already standing one step below me, with his hand an inch from my elbow.

He didn't touch it.

He just stayed there, ready.

At the bottom, by the bakery's rear door, Dalton stood under the yellow bulb.

He had no tie and no jacket, and his white shirt was creased from six hours of sitting somewhere.

He held a leather briefcase against his chest in both arms.

"I'm not here to make a speech," he said. "There's no camera. I checked."

"You checked," I said.

"I know how that sounds."

"Say what you came to say, Dalton. It's midnight, and I'm pregnant."

He winced at the word.

He set the briefcase on the bottom step, opened it, and began taking out papers, one at a time, and laying them on the stairs.

"The court petition. I withdrew it at five o'clock. Here's the stamped copy."

"My resignation from the board, and from everything at Amory Group. It's signed."

"A statement to the board and to the district attorney. I wrote it myself, no lawyer."

I looked at the third page.

It was in his own handwriting, with his signature at the bottom.

A postal receipt was stapled to the corner.

He had already mailed the original to the district attorney, at four o'clock, before he came to me.

"That could put you in prison for fraud," Cullen said, from behind me.

"I know what it could do."

Dalton did not look at him.

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