Mom Handed Us One Lease, So I Handed My Stepbrother My Bed novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Envelope

We did not speak on the drive home from New Braunfels.

My mother and Erwin had left ahead of us in his car, waving out the window.

I sat with my hands under my thighs, and Jakob drove with both of his on the wheel.

Cedar shavings blew out of the truck bed and whirled in the side mirror.

At the apartment he climbed the stairs ahead of me and went straight to his room.

I stood in the hall and listened to a mug scrape across a desk.

He came back with the envelope.

It was thick and creased, and the block capitals on the front were the same ones my stepfather used on feed invoices.

THANKSGIVING. DO NOT OPEN. DAD.

"It's yours," Jakob said. "It was always yours."

I took it, and my fingers touched his.

His hand was cold.

I carried the envelope to the kitchen table, sat down under the one bare bulb and opened the flap.

The top page was typed.

Petition for the Adoption of an Adult.

My name was on the second line, with my middle name, which I had not known anyone in Boerne had.

Under the typing lay a single sheet of lined paper, folded in thirds.

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