Cancel the Wedding, Queen Moves On novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: Paid in Full

The credit union on Wickenden Street lent me the money in two days.

The loan officer had known me since I was nine.

She read the deed to 214 Wickenden Street twice and said, "Honey, this is the best day this building has ever had."

I carried the cheque to the boathouse on Wednesday night in an envelope.

Bram opened the door in his grey sweater and bare feet, with a dish towel over his shoulder.

He looked at the envelope, and the smile slid off his face.

"Sit down," I said.

"I'd rather stand."

"Then stand."

I held it out.

He took it, and he read it standing in his own kitchen, with the harbor going dark behind him.

His lips moved over the number.

I watched him get to the part where it said "and interest to date."

"Etta."

"Two hundred and eleven thousand, four hundred dollars. And six thousand one hundred and eight for the seven years, at the rate the bank would have charged."

"I can't take this."

"It's drawn on a real account."

"That isn't the problem."

"Then take it."

He tore it in half.

Then he tore the halves in half, calmly.

He dropped the pieces on the counter.

"It was never a loan," he said.

"It was a gift."

"Don't you dare call it a gift. A gift is something I could say no to."

My voice rang off the beams.

"I never got to refuse it. You made that choice for me, and Pearl made it, and for seven years I stood in my father's shop thinking I'd done it all on my own."

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