Regret is the Punishment novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Fire Call
I asked him about the lease over coffee, in the plain light of the morning kitchen.
He leaned against the counter with a mug and did not pretend to be surprised.
"I put it in your name on Monday."
"Why?"
"So nobody can ever put you out of a house Darla lives in."
"Not me. Not the papers. Not my mother."
"Jerome, that isn't enough..." I said.
"It isn't forgiveness. It's a lease."
He drank his coffee.
He didn't smile, but his eyes had something in them I had not seen in a long time.
"I'm on at eight tomorrow," he said. "Pick up Darla from your sister's at noon. She'll want to show you the cat trick."
He had said that I would pick her up.
He had said it without a rule attached.
I carried that sentence around with me all day.
On Sunday afternoon, I drove my sister's car down Harbor Lane for the first time since the fire.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Regret is the Punishment are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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