He Took My Prison Sentence, So Now My Secretary Is Mine novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Shoebox

Ira sat on the bench in the front hall with a towel around his neck and rain running off his cane.

He had put the shoebox on his knees and both hands flat on the lid.

Jud stood in front of him in half-buttoned trousers.

Yancey stood at the bottom of the stairs in a borrowed shirt, with his heart going hard, and did not know what to do with his hands.

"You're soaked," Jud said. "Let me get you."

"I don't want a drink."

"You drove in this?"

"I took a cab." Ira's jaw was tight. "I couldn't sit in my flat. I tried. I looked at the clock until I couldn't."

"Ira. What's in the box?"

"I'll tell you. I have to do it in order." Ira looked up, and his grey eyes went past Jud's shoulder. "Yance. You should stay. This is yours, too."

Yancey came forward and sat on the third stair.

The hall was very quiet.

Water dripped from the cane onto the marble, a slow patient tick.

"In June I started seeing a woman," Ira said. "A therapist. For my hip. For the sleeping, mostly. I told her I didn't remember much about that night, and she said that was normal, and not to push."

"Ira."

"Let me. In August I had a dream. I was in the back seat, and I was sixteen, and I was leaning forward between the seats because I wanted to see the radio." He swallowed. "And I looked at you, Jud. I looked at the back of your head."

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