I Took His Prison Sentence. Now He Begs. novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: A Husband in Under an Hour

Ben lays out terms and takes her to the courthouse, where Morton's lawyer offers a quarter million for her signature; she tears the check and marries a stranger.

The truck smelled of diesel and wet rope.

Ben Crane drove with both hands on the wheel and said nothing for six blocks.

I sat with the Widow's card in my lap and water running out of my hair onto a coat that wasn't mine.

"Your mother is Odessa," I said finally.

"You know her as Odessa."

"Everyone inside knew her as the Widow. I never heard a last name."

He nodded once at the windshield.

"She has eleven months, maybe less."

He kept his eyes on the road.

"She asked me for one thing, and she wouldn't tell me who. She said I'd say no."

"Would you have?"

"Yes."

At least he was honest.

"Here are the terms," he said. "One year."

"Go on."

"My mother's lawyer holds the papers to end it when the year is up. You get your own room with a lock on the inside."

He glanced at me once.

"I don't touch you, and you don't ask me for anything I can't buy."

"I don't want your money."

"Then we'll get along fine."

A gray sedan had been in the mirror since the club. I watched it make every turn we made.

At the courthouse the sedan pulled in behind us.

On the steps a woman in a rain jacket held out a folder to Ben. She was his mother's lawyer. She had a marriage license inside it, already issued, and a pen.

Ben read my name on the license for a long second.

Then he looked at me, and he signed his own.

Before I could pick up the pen, a man in a charcoal overcoat came up the steps from the sedan with an umbrella and a leather case.

"Miss Soderberg. Two minutes."

"Who are you?"

"I represent Mr. Linwood's family. They're prepared to be generous."

He opened the case.

There was a cashier's check inside, and a single typed page.

I knew the page.

It was the one Carter had held out an hour ago, with the same sentence about being alone in the car.

The check was made out to me for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

"You have no job and no home," the lawyer said, kindly enough.

"A statement on file, a quiet life, and this."

He tipped the case toward me.

"The family would like the matter closed."

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

I had earned eleven cents an hour in the prison laundry.

I looked at the check for exactly as long as it took to be sure.

Then I tore it in half, and in half again, and I put the pieces in his open case.

"Tell them I said no twice," I said.

"Miss Soderberg, you won't get a better offer."

"I got a worse one three years ago."

I closed the case on his hand.

"I took it."

He shut the case with a little snap and went back down the steps.

Ben had watched all of it from two feet away with his hands in his jacket pockets.

He leaned down and picked up a corner of the check that had missed the case. He folded it and put it in his pocket without a word.

Then he held the courthouse door open for me.

The wedding took nine minutes.

Two clerks stood in as witnesses.

One of them had the video of the ballroom open on her phone under the counter.

She kept looking from the screen to my face.

Ben's mother's lawyer took a ring from her coat.

It was a thin gold band, worn on the inside.

"Odessa's," she said.

"She wants you to have it."

Ben took it from her palm and held it a moment.

He slid it onto my finger.

His hand was warm and rough and it did not shake, and I felt it all the way up my arm.

"You may kiss the bride," said the clerk, who hadn't been told.

Ben looked at me.

I looked at him.

"No," we said at the same time.

Both clerks laughed. The lawyer didn't.

Outside, the rain had stopped. Ben unlocked the truck and handed me a phone from the glove box, a new one in its box.

"For you. Mine is on it. Hers is on it."

I turned it on.

It buzzed in my hand before I had set anything up.

The first message was from a number I didn't know.

Congratulations, Mrs. Crane. I'm so happy you have someone. Warmly, Daphne.

I smiled, a little, for the first time that day.

"Nice of her," I said. "She was kind to me at the club. She gave me this coat."

"Who is she?"

"Carter's fiancee."

Ben took the phone out of my hand and looked at the screen.

He read the message twice.

"We got married nine minutes ago," he said. "How does she know your name is Crane?"

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend