Traded for Nine Boats, I Walked In Pregnant and Ran Their House novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Other Pledge
Marigo's room was on the second floor at the back, with an iron bed, a wardrobe, and a single photograph on the dresser.
It showed a girl in a dark dress on a dock, with a plait down her back and her chin lifted.
I knew the chin.
"Sit," Marigo said.
I sat on the edge of the bed.
She did not sit.
She stood at the window with her keys in her hand and her back to me.
"You ask yourself why I put you in the pledge room," she said.
"Every night I think you ask."
"I thought it was the only spare bed," I said.
"It was mine," she said.
The house was very quiet.
"I was a Vlachos," Marigo said.
"No kin to your father's line.
"The same name, from the same island, from the other side of the bay.
"There are a hundred Vlachos in Tarpon Springs, and mine dove for sponges on the far side of the bay."
She turned.
"Fifty-eight years ago my father owed this house, and the two families were fighting over the diving grounds.
"A treaty was made.
"I was twenty-four.
"They put me on a train to Astoria with one trunk and a boat note tied to my name.
"The Stavrou eldest son opened this door and showed me to the room at the end of the second floor."
She looked at me.
"The brass bed.
"The icon.
"The red candle."
My mouth was dry.
"I slept there from November to Pascha.
"He never came to the door.
"He was a decent man, and he was afraid of me, and I was afraid of him.
"I sat at the table with my eyes down until Easter, and at Easter my father's debts were gone."
"And then?"
"And then I stayed," she said.
"Nobody had asked me whether I would."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Traded for Nine Boats, I Walked In Pregnant and Ran Their House are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend