While He Built Her Home novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Four Seconds
The lawyer's conference room had a long table and a bowl of mints nobody touched.
Jared arrived at five to ten, alone, in the same clean shirt.
He didn't say good morning.
He sat at the far end, uncapped his pen and waited for the lawyer to slide the papers over.
"You can read them first," my lawyer said.
"I read them last night."
He turned to the last page, and I watched him sign it.
His signature was loose and quick, the one that had been on every check and delivery form for six years.
It barely took him a moment.
"The house is hers," he said. "The studio is hers. I get the baby on the days she says, and I pay what the court says, and I pay it on time."
"That's correct," said my lawyer.
"Then I'm done."
He capped the pen.
He looked down the table at me.
"Val, I'm not going to say it's okay between us."
"Good."
"But I'm going to be at the school plays. I'm going to learn how to braid hair, if that's what we've got. I'm going to be so boring and so reliable that you get tired of me."
"That will take a while."
"I've got time."
He pushed the chair in and went out.
He didn't turn around at the door, and I was grateful.
I signed my name under his.
When I put the pen down, I felt nothing at all, which was the best thing I could have felt.
That evening I stood in my kitchen with the lamp over the stove on.
The doorbell rang once.
Clayton stood on the step in a clean shirt, with his hair damp, and he had a paper bag from the Thai place in one hand.
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