He Banned a Baby in Our Contract, Then Found His Daughter novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Cold House
The parcel came on the first Tuesday of February, in brown paper, with a Hann Marine label on it.
I was behind the post office wicket, so I signed for it myself.
Inside was a plain envelope, and inside the envelope were the pieces of a folder, torn across and across again.
There was a note on top in square left-handed capitals.
It said: TORN. NOT FIXED. I AM WORKING ON THE REST. C.
I read it twice.
I put the pieces in my apron pocket, where they stayed against my hip all morning.
At ten a courier in a parka stamped snow off his boots onto my mat and held out a clipboard.
"Millicent Dwyer?" he said. "Sign here, please. It's from a law office in town."
The four men at the coffee table by the freezer had stopped talking, which is how I knew it mattered.
I signed.
I opened the envelope on the counter between the stamps and the scale.
The letterhead said The Hann Family Trust.
There was a cheque, made out to Millicent Dwyer, for two hundred thousand dollars, and a typed paper with a line for my name.
The paper said I agreed that the minor child Sadie would be placed in the Trust's care for her medical needs.
I did the sums, because I always do.
Two hundred thousand dollars was three years of the Co-op's wages, and a new roof, and the freezers.
It was also, in plain words, what Verna Hann thought my daughter cost.
"Who's it from, my love?" asked the oldest man.
"Lorcan's aunt," I said. "She'd like to look after Sadie's heart."
Nobody at the table spoke.
I walked down the length of the shop to the barrel stove at the back, the one that heats the hardware aisle.
I opened its door with the poker.
I fed in the paper first.
It curled and blackened, and the line for my name went last.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Banned a Baby in Our Contract, Then Found His Daughter are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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