Not His Wife novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Second Form

I remembered April in the car, with my mother's pearl studs in my pocket and Anson's hand on the wheel beside me.

He had come out to Cutler Street after all, and parked half a block away, and he did not say one word about it.

I told him what Alyssa had said on the step.

"April," I said. "She came over with a lemon cake and a stack of county papers."

"What papers?"

"She said it was a property tax break for houses like mine. Three pages. I signed at the kitchen table while she cut the cake."

"Did you read them?"

"I hate paperwork," I said. "Alyssa knew that."

We went straight to the Westbridge County Records office, up the wide stone steps.

The same clerk was at the counter, the one who had texted Anson.

She pulled up forty-one Linden Road, scrolled, and her face changed.

"There's a second recording," she said. "April eleventh."

She printed it.

It was three pages, with my signature on every one, and my I with its straight line.

The title at the top said it released my homestead protection on the house and moved it to Dorsey Lathrop Holdings.

At the bottom was the same notary stamp I had seen on the deed.

"This says I signed it in front of him on April ninth," I said.

"That's what the stamp says," said the clerk.

"On April ninth I was at my kitchen table with Alyssa and a lemon cake."

"Was the notary there?"

"Nobody was there. I was alone with her."

The clerk looked at me for a moment.

"Then this stamp is a lie," she said. "I'd keep the original. I'll make you a certified copy."

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