The Secret Between Us novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Fergus

My father was sanding a plank when I walked into the boat shed.

He looked up and saw the paper in my hand, and the plank slid out of his fingers.

It hit the floor with a flat crack that rang off the rafters.

Caleb stood at my shoulder and said nothing.

Pierce had gone back up the hill to lock the safe.

I was grateful, because I didn't want a witness who loved my father too.

"Isla," Dad said.

"Is this your handwriting?"

I held the page up, and the curl of the k hung in the dusty light.

He didn't take it.

He didn't have to.

I watched all the blood leave his face.

"Answer me."

"Yes," he said.

One word, so small and so dry.

I had thought I was ready for it.

I wasn't.

My chest folded in, and I had to put a hand on a sawhorse.

"You signed my name."

"Isla, listen."

"You signed my name on a paper that ended my marriage."

"I thought it was already over!" His voice cracked. "He was gone!"

"Cornelia came to the cottage that Sunday morning, and she said he had left for good."

"You didn't ask me."

"You were upstairs sobbing! You wouldn't eat! I stood in your doorway for an hour, and you didn't see me."

"You didn't ask me."

"I didn't know that you'd married him!"

I stared at him.

"Cornelia told me," he said.

"She said you two had run off to a courthouse like children, and that he'd thought better of it."

"She said a marriage like that would follow you for life."

"So you forged my name."

"She said it would be quick and quiet. She said I'd save you the shame of having to chase a man who didn't want you."

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