When the Road Went Silent novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Bar

The lawyer drove a green sedan older than I was.

He drove it exactly at the speed limit, with both hands on the wheel, and he refused to say another word about the will until we reached the clubhouse.

Ward sat beside him in the front seat.

I sat in the back with the red-sealed envelope on my lap and my father's ring on my thumb.

It was still too big.

I held it against my palm with my other hand so it wouldn't slide off.

The sedan turned onto Lake Road, and the clubhouse came up through the trees.

Eleven bikes sat in the lot.

Cade's black sedan was parked at the front.

"Noon church," the lawyer said, pulling in. "He's early."

"He's nervous," I said.

"Do you want to go in?"

"No." I opened the door. "I'm going in anyway."

I got out.

Ward got out, and the lawyer stayed behind the wheel with the engine running and a folder in his lap.

"I'll follow you in one minute," the lawyer said. "I'd like to sit a moment. I'm seventy-nine."

Ward walked around the car and stopped in front of me.

I put my hand flat against his chest.

"I need to go in alone," I said. "At least to the door."

"No."

"Ward."

"You walk in there with a will and a ring, and every man in that building who hasn't been told yet will come at you." His voice was low and hard. "I'll stand behind you. I won't speak."

"You're not a member anymore."

"I know what I am."

"Then why?"

"Because I made your father a promise."

I hit him.

I hit him in the chest with a closed fist, and then again, harder.

"Four years," I said. "You let me sleep next to that man for four years."

"I know."

"You watched me smile at his lies. You watched me fold his shirts."

"I know."

"I was alone in that house, and you were forty feet away."

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