My Husband Sent the Helicopter to Save a Dog, So I Signed novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Offer

Odette came in with her dog and a leather folder, smiling at every customer.

She stopped when she saw Mitchell behind my counter in a flour-streaked apron.

For a half second her face went completely empty.

Then she set it back, kind and sorrowful.

"Mitchell, darling. You look tired."

"Say what you came to say," he told her.

"To Marisa. Alone."

He looked at me.

I took off my apron, turned on the voice recorder on my phone, and slid the phone into my pocket.

"Back kitchen," I said. "Mitchell, mind the register."

"Mari."

"Mind the register."

He did.

The back kitchen smelled of yeast and hot sugar.

Odette set the folder on the steel table and laid Biscuit's leash across it.

The old dog went to the oven vent and lay down in the warm air.

I hated that I couldn't hate her.

"You've done very well," Odette said. "I want you to know I respect that."

"What do you want?"

She opened the folder.

Inside was a check made out to me, and a single page of text.

"One million dollars," she said. "From a trust I control, no questions."

"For what?"

"Your signature on a statement. It says your call dropped because of the fire and nobody at Bradbury did anything wrong."

She tapped the page.

"And that you're sorry for the confusion."

"A million dollars."

"For a bakery that nets forty thousand a year." She said it gently. "You could do something with that, Marisa. Buy back your father's building. Put your grandmother somewhere beautiful."

"She's on my shelf. She's fine."

"And you withdraw the divorce petition, and you let Mitchell go."

I laughed out loud.

"You're asking me to sign a paper. For you."

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