Chapter 15: Withdrawn

Britta's POV

At seven the next morning the yard was cold and white with frost.

The whole crew stood in the long shop with their coffee, and nobody said good morning to me.

Nils stood on the same crate as yesterday.

He had shaved badly.

He held a manila folder, and his lawyer stood next to him with his arms folded and his mouth tight.

Birgit was not there.

Kristin was not there.

Anders stood beside me near the door, and our sleeves almost touched.

"Thank you for coming," Nils said.

His voice carried in the rafters.

"I've got something to say, and then I'm handing my wife some papers."

I felt Pia's elbow in my ribs.

She had come in behind us and was eating a doughnut.

"Last month I told this crew I was getting a baby," Nils said.

"Two weeks ago I told them my wife was using hers to keep me. Neither one of those was true."

A woman by the radiator looked at her shoes.

"I filed for divorce on a Thursday," he said. "My wife hadn't done anything."

"She'd been trying for four years to have our baby, and I got tired of waiting."

"Then somebody told me I already had one."

"Nils," said his lawyer.

"I'm telling it my way."

He opened the folder.

"This is the withdrawal. The petition is gone."

"I'm not asking for the cottage on Larsmont Road, or any part of it, or her savings."

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