My Ex Sold Me for His Debts, Then My Brother's Enemy Claimed Me novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Unwritten Terms

I didn't go home after the counting house.

The elders had stayed behind with Odette, and the moot she had dared me to call was going to be called for me, in my father's hall, before I was ready.

I went back across the river on foot, in the dark, and nobody at the Cairnfell gate asked me where I was going.

If they were going to try my brother, I would walk in with the ledger and a mate at my back, not alone.

Costa was in the hall, alone, with a lamp and a stack of yellow papers on the long table.

He stood up when I came in.

"I should have said this on the bridge," he said. "I withdraw the claim."

I stopped walking.

"I'll say it before both packs if you want."

"Mate or not, you owe Cairnfell nothing."

"You don't have to stay one more night, and you don't have to answer me ever."

"Costa."

"Read these first."

He pushed the papers across the table.

There were six of them, each one folded in thirds.

Each carried the name of a woman I had met at Cairnfell, her own signature, and a stamp from the county clerk.

I read the first.

I, the undersigned, am free of all debt and claim, and no person holds any right over me.

A line at the bottom was filled in by hand. Train fare, one month's rent, paid in full.

I read the second, and the third.

Not one had his name as owner. Not one said she belonged to Cairnfell.

"You thought I kept them," he said.

"I did."

"I bought six women to stop someone worse from buying them."

"Then I wrote them out of my hands. It took a year to make the clerk's office believe it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You'd been sold to me that same week," he said. "How would you have believed a word of it?"

← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend