He Chose Her. I Left Carrying His Heir. novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Take the Patch

The oldest man on the porch was the one with the white beard I'd seen on the third bike.

He walked to the middle of the steps, with his hands at his sides, and stood in front of Cade.

"Put it to the table," he said.

"There's no table," Cade said. "It's a parking lot."

"Then we'll do it in a parking lot." The old man raised his voice. "Hands. Anyone who says Cade Chitwood doesn't wear the president's patch, put it up."

A hand went up in the back.

Then the rest of the porch, one after another, and the men on the gravel.

I kept my eyes on their hands, unable to look at his face.

There wasn't a hand down in the whole lot.

"You can't do this," Cade said. "I'm the president. I was voted in."

"By men who thought you were somebody else." The old man held out his palm. "Knife."

Someone gave him one.

He cut the patch off Cade's vest in three slow strokes, and the thread popped, and the leather hung open where the patch had been.

He dropped it on the porch boards.

Cade stood there and looked down at it.

"Pop," he said.

Floyd did not answer.

"Pop. Tell them I was a kid. Tell them I was twenty-six and I was scared."

"I'm telling them the truth," Floyd said, and his face was wet. "I'm telling them for eight years too late."

"You told me to say nothing! You told me! You said it'd be two years!"

"I did."

"Then you're as guilty as I am!"

"I am," said Floyd. "I'm going to stand next to you and say so."

Cade made a sound I had never heard from a man.

He swung round and found me, and his eyes were red.

"Ruby," he said. "Tell them. Tell them I'm your husband. Tell them you'd stand by me."

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