I Married a Stranger to Ruin My Groom novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Honeymoon

By noon on Saturday a sheriff's deputy had changed the locks on Alder Street back, and Russell's suitcases were on the lawn instead.

Harvey's lawyer had a court order, and my mother had a photograph of the suitcases that she kept showing to the nurses.

"Go," she said from her pillows. "Use that honeymoon. I'll be asleep until Tuesday, and the nurses like me better when you're not here."

"Mom, it was Cory's honeymoon."

"It was yours. You paid for it with a credit card." She pointed a butterscotch at Harvey. "Take my daughter somewhere with a view."

The resort was on the coast, three hours away, and the reservation was still in my name.

It had a white lobby, a clerk with a clipboard and a smell of salt.

"Mrs. Callanan? And Mr. Fosdick?" said the clerk.

"Mr. Lorne," said Harvey. "The reservation was changed."

"Of course. The honeymoon suite, and the connecting room you added."

I turned my head.

"You added a room," I said.

"In case."

"In case of what?"

"In case you wanted a door." He took both keys from the clerk and held one out. "You've said no to me more than anything else this week. I wanted you to have a place to say it."

I looked at the key.

Rule four, I thought.

He had written that rule himself, and he had still made sure I had a door.

I took the key and put it in my pocket, and I did not say anything.

We had dinner on the terrace, with the ocean going dark below us and a candle that kept going out.

Halfway through the fish, I took a folded paper from my bag.

"What's that?" said Harvey.

"The lawyer drew it up on Friday." I slid it across the tablecloth. "I give you the shares. All of it, sixty-one percent. You sign, and it's yours."

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