Love After Layoffs novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Bank

The branch on Murray Avenue had a line of fourteen people at the teller windows and a carpet the color of oatmeal.

I walked in with Brooks half a step behind me and did not slow down.

Justin sat at a desk in the glassed-in office at the back, across from the man I had spoken to on the phone.

A woman in a charcoal blazer sat at the end of the desk with the file open in front of her.

Justin had a pen in his hand and a smile on his face.

"There she is," he said, when I pushed open the door. "Janine, you're upset."

"Don't release a dollar," I said to the man.

"Sir, I've been asked to confirm identity," he said.

"I'm Janine Weller. That is my husband, and I am his wife, and I never signed that page."

"She's confused," Justin said smoothly. "We've been separated. She gave consent in writing last week, and the notary stamped it."

He slid a paper across the desk.

It had a signature on it, in loops.

"Where's the notary?" the woman in the blazer asked.

"At the UPS store on Forbes."

"The stamp is dated the fourth of October."

"I know when I had it done."

"That's five days before the closing."

Justin's smile held, but his hand had gone flat on the desk.

The people in the line had gone quiet and turned their heads.

A man in a suit near the front folded his newspaper.

An old woman in a quilted coat, with white hair, stood at the end of the line holding a deposit slip.

I knew her.

She was the neighbor who had told the whole street where Justin spent Thanksgiving.

She gave me a small, grim wave.

"Ma'am," the woman in the blazer said to me. "Would you be willing to sign something here, now, so we can compare?"

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