Divorced, Broke, and Back as His Perfect Wife novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Free to Say No

Brennan's POV

My mother set three plates on her kitchen table at eight in the morning and did not sit down.

Lena sat beside me. She had put the cream envelope next to the sugar bowl without a word.

I had read the letter in the car, once.

My father's handwriting had been hard to look at. His blocky capitals leaned the way mine do.

"Mom," I said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because he asked me not to." She wiped her hands on her apron, though they were dry. "And because I thought you'd marry her for the money and she'd find out."

"I would have."

"I know you would have. That's why I kept my mouth shut."

I looked at Lena.

"You've known for three days."

"Yes."

"You sat across from me at the Hartwells' table."

"I did."

"You were in my bed last night, and you still waited until afterward."

"I wanted you to say what you said before you knew what it cost," she said. "Both times. I'm sorry I did it that way."

It did not sound like an apology. It sounded like a fact she had every right to state.

And then I understood what was wrong with the way I'd been counting.

For weeks I had told myself she was doing this for the money. Fifty thousand a month, her mother's bills, a year of acting.

I had been telling myself that because it was easier than the other thing.

If she had cared only about money, she would have kept the letter in her coat. She would have let March fourteenth arrive.

She would have walked into that lawyer's office and signed for twenty percent of my company.

She would have held the one card I didn't know about.

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