The Wedding She Survived novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Stay

Willa's POV

I texted him because of Sebastian.

On the night Killian didn't flash his light, Sebastian stood at the upstairs window for half an hour with the flashlight in both hands.

"His light is broken," he said. "Mommy, it's broken."

"Maybe he's busy, baby."

"He's never busy at eight."

At nine, Poppy told me, very calmly, that she did not want to be in a family where one person stayed across the street.

I didn't text him that night.

On Monday at ten, when Sebastian asked again, I got out my phone.

Killian came at seven that evening, straight from the yard, with sawdust still in his hair.

He knocked on the front door, which he had not done in thirty days.

I let him in, and the kids hit him all at once.

Finn climbed up his back and sat on his shoulders.

I watched my children hang off his arms and legs, shrieking, and I felt something in my chest give way.

After dinner and baths and three stories, they were asleep.

I came down the stairs and found him in the kitchen with an envelope in his hand.

"I have to tell you something," he said. "And you're going to be angry."

"Tell me anyway."

He laid the envelope and a notary's form on the table between us.

I sat down and looked at her shaky signature.

"Nineteen thousand dollars," I said.

"It's the first part."

"She'll be paying for the rest of her life."

"That's what she said."

"I can't decide about it tonight."

"I'm not asking you to."

"I'm not ready to see her. But I'm not going to tell you she's wrong to try." I rubbed my eyes. "That's the best I've got."

"That's more than I expected."

I stood up and went around the table.

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