Sweetheart Wife novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Date

"Say that again," Jonas said.

"I didn't sign it."

My voice came out thin and clear, and I heard it carry down the long table.

"That is my handwriting," I said. "I can see that it is. But I never wrote it."

"Of course you say that now," Delilah said.

"Look at the date."

Nobody moved.

Jonas looked down at the page under the candles.

Under the title, in small typed numbers, was the date.

It said the statement had been sworn and notarized in Charleston on a Thursday.

"Read it out," I said.

He read it out in a flat, careful voice.

"I left Charleston on a Sunday morning, four days before that Thursday," I said.

"My father drove me to the airport himself."

"He did not say a word the whole way."

"I landed in Anchorage that night, and my aunt met me at the gate with a coat."

"I started at the fish plant the next Monday."

"They paid me by the hour, so there is a time card for every day of that week."

"On the Thursday you're holding, I was standing at a gutting table in Alaska with my hands in a bucket of ice."

The old man from my father's firm lifted his head.

Dale's mother set her napkin down very slowly.

"That's a lie," Delilah said.

"It's a time card. You can call the plant. It's still open."

"You could have flown back."

"With what money? You'd taken my wallet at the door."

For the first time, I saw something flicker across Delilah's smooth face.

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