They Chose the Wrong Daughter novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Two Hundred Witnesses

Clem closed the study door behind her and leaned on it with the key in her hand.

My father had gone gray, and my mother had stopped crying.

"I'll say the rest," Clem said, "because Dad never finishes anything."

She smiled at me, kindly.

"The coast guard has forty crates of rifles with Fergus's tags on them," she said. "There's a warrant with his name. He'll be arrested in that hospital bed by Monday."

"You signed the manifest," I said.

"I sign everything," she said. "You saw the folder."

"You put his name on that boat."

"I put a name on a form," Clem said, in the same sweet voice. "Whose name, I couldn't say. But I know one person who can make the warrant go away. Whoever holds the papers."

"You."

"Me, or Dad, if you like. It's all the same." She tilted her head. "Marry Nolan on Saturday, and the papers vanish. Fergus lives his last months in his own bed."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then the Askews take the docks, and a very sick old man goes to prison." She spread her hands. "I don't want that. It's just how the pieces fall."

My mother said, "Clementine."

"It's a good deal, Mama," Clem said, not looking at her. "She gets a husband who likes her. We get the docks. Everybody lives."

I looked at her round, freckled, gentle face.

I had been wrong about her from the first hug, and I was not going to be wrong about her again.

"Saturday," I said.

My father let out a breath.

"The party is tomorrow night," Clem said. "Two hundred guests. We'll announce the date, and Nolan's father will make a toast."

"I'll be there," I said.

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