Betrayed: She Took My Son novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Paper Can Wait

Dot took the baby at eight o'clock on Thursday night.

"He's sleeping in my room," she said, and shifted Liam to her shoulder.

"Don't argue with me, Mel. I have raised calves with worse sleep habits."

"Dot."

"I'm going to put on a record and be deaf till morning."

She looked at me over the baby's head.

Then she went up the stairs, and I stood alone in her kitchen with my heart going so hard I could hear it.

The lantern was lit in the barn.

Clayton was sitting on the cot in the tack room with his boots off, mending a bridle strap.

He stood up when I came to the door.

"Is he all right?"

"He's with Dot. He's fine."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing," I said. "Nothing's wrong."

I came in and shut the door behind me.

He stood very still.

"Mel," he said. "The papers aren't final."

"No."

"You said nothing happens while you're still his wife."

"I did."

"I'm not going to be the reason you regret something."

"Clayton." I crossed the floor.

"I spent seven months being told what I felt and what I wanted. I've decided this one myself."

He looked down at me.

"Still Philip's wife?" he asked, very softly.

"On a piece of paper. Not anywhere I live."

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