This Heiress Doesn't Fight Anymore novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Stay

Seth tied the catboat to the railway without a word.

He took the paper out of Gran's hand and read it under the yard light.

I didn't need to.

Reputational damage from Charlotte Wakefield.

My name, on their paper, as the reason.

"He said to tell you he voted no," Gran said. "Your brother. He said that twice."

"It doesn't matter how he voted."

"It mattered to him, honey."

I went up to the loft and sat on the bed in Bess's yellow dress with sand still on my ankles.

I didn't cry.

I did arithmetic.

At four in the morning I had the answer, and it was the same answer every time.

So I packed.

It didn't take long.

Two T-shirts, my cutoffs, a toothbrush, the envelope with what was left of my Friday pay.

I folded Seth's sweatshirt and left it on the pillow.

Then I put the parts slip in my pocket, because I couldn't make myself leave that.

Gran was already in the kitchen at the house when I came up the hill at six.

She was in her bathrobe, making coffee in the old percolator, with a cigarette going in a saucer.

She looked at the bag on my shoulder.

"Sit down."

"Gran, I have to..."

"I said sit."

I sat.

She poured two cups and put one in front of me and sat down across the kitchen table, slowly, because of her hip.

"Where are you going?"

"Away. Providence, maybe. Somewhere they can't say my name next to yours."

"And you think that fixes it."

"The board called the note because of me. If I'm not here, there's no reason."

Gran drank her coffee.

She took her time about it.

"When did Wakefield buy my note, honey?"

I opened my mouth.

"May," I said.

"And when did my grandson fish you out of the harbor?"

"June thirteenth."

"So they bought it a month before they ever knew you'd set foot here."

She put her cup down.

"They wanted my yard in May. They want it now. You walking out of here in the dark with a toothbrush doesn't change one damn thing, except I lose the best sander I ever had."

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