New Husband. Old One Gone novel · Chapter 19 of 32
Chapter 19: The Ropewalk Shut
Sawyer got out of the truck and stood in the headlights reading the orange paper.
I came and stood next to him.
"Certificate of occupancy suspended," it said in black block letters. "Do not occupy."
Sawyer put his hand flat on the iron door.
"Three years," he said.
He'd bought it with trees growing out of the roof. He'd numbered every heart-pine board by hand.
"Three hundred people," he said. "Saturday. She put down a deposit eighteen months ago. Her daddy saved for it."
"Who complained?" I said.
"Doesn't say."
"It's Bryce."
"Ro, you don't know that."
"It's Saturday. They don't tape things on doors on a Saturday unless somebody made a phone call."
Corey had climbed out of the back seat. He read the paper over our heads.
"That's on me," he said. "That's because of today."
"It's not on you," Sawyer said.
He peeled the paper off the door whole, folded it, and put it in his back pocket.
The inspector came Monday at eight.
He was a heavy, patient man with a flashlight, and he looked embarrassed.
The exit sign over the river door had a dead bulb.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of New Husband. Old One Gone are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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