I Took His Prison Sentence. Now He Begs. novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Stay

Odessa slept in the downstairs room with the window open to the water, and the house was quiet by ten.

I found Ben on the dock in his shirtsleeves with the annulment envelope in his hand.

He had not opened it.

"She's asleep," he said. "She asked for the sound of the tide."

"She told me she's cold."

"I put another blanket on." He turned the envelope over. "I'm not going to put this in front of you."

"I know."

"I'm not going to cry about it, either."

"I noticed."

He almost smiled.

"I'm going to say one thing, and then you can do what you want," he said. "The year was my mother's idea. It was never mine. I stopped counting the days in March, and I never told anyone."

"Ben."

"I want you to stay. Not for her, not for the lease, not for anything I owe. I want you to stay because I want to wake up and find you in my kitchen with your terrible coffee."

"My coffee is fine."

"It's undrinkable."

"You drink it every morning."

"That," said Ben, "is the whole point."

I took the envelope out of his hand.

I looked at the word across the top, in the lawyer's tidy print.

I tore it in half.

I tore it again, and again, until the pieces were small.

I dropped them through the gaps in the dock boards, and the tide took them away.

"That's what I do with paper," I said. "I've noticed it's a habit."

He stared at the water.

"Say it," he said, low. "Please. I need it said."

"I'm staying, Ben. I'm your wife. I'm not signing out of it."

He took me by the face and kissed me so hard my heels left the boards.

We went up the stairs without ever once letting go of each other.

In his room I shut the door.

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