He Left My Daughter With His Ex, So I Left the Sea King novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Signed Before

I broke my own rule that afternoon and went down the sea stair with the summons in my fist.

Stavros had offered to come.

I told him to stay with Zoe and teach her to gut a sardine, which kept her laughing for the first time in two days.

The hall was colder than I remembered, and every servant I passed found a reason to look at the floor.

I found Kyros in the long room where he kept the tide maps.

He was standing at the table with both hands flat on it, and he looked like he had not slept.

When he saw me his whole body turned toward the door.

"You came."

"I came to ask you one question."

"Ask."

I laid the summons on the map between us.

"Did you sign this?"

He looked at it for a long moment.

"Yes."

"Three weeks ago."

"Yes."

"Before the swim. Before you promised her a market day."

"Ligeia brought it to me." His voice was rough. "She said the law couldn't wait, that Zoe turns ten in twelve days and the order had to be filed first. She said it was a formality, a swim in the shallows with a clerk watching. I signed it between two other papers."

"You signed a paper about my daughter without telling me."

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to frighten you."

I stared at him.

"That is the worst reason you could have given me."

"I know."

"Read me what it says."

He turned the page toward himself and read, and I watched his face change.

"It says a trial by water. In the Basin of Names. Before the full court."

"Not the shallows?"

"No."

"Not a swim?"

"Ligeia changed the wording." He put the page down very carefully. "I didn't read it. I trusted the date, and I didn't read it."

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