Severed Mother-Daughter Ties novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Cut-Off

Wylie's POV

By Monday morning my stepmother had no house, no cards and no name on the door.

My father did it all before breakfast.

He sat in the study with two lawyers and a cup of black coffee, and he signed where they told him to.

I stood at the window and watched the yard.

"Her accounts are frozen," the older lawyer said. "The cards are cancelled. The house is in your father's name, so she has no claim to stay."

"Where is she?" I asked.

"At a hotel on Fourth Street, with her own attorney."

"And the district attorney?"

"Has opened a file." The lawyer glanced at my father. "On the sale of a child, and the false report. The detective who walked up to the stage on Saturday night has asked for the folder."

"He can have it," my father said.

He put the pen down.

"Divorce papers," he said. "Today."

"Chester, you're sure?"

"I've never been so sure of anything in my life, and I've been sure of a good many things."

He looked at me then.

"Your part is the foundation," he said.

"I know."

"What do you want to do?"

"Close it."

I had thought about it all night, lying awake in Kristen's bed with her back against my chest.

I had never had a clearer thought.

"Every dollar Colleen raised came in on a lie," I said. "The people who gave it are owed an accounting, not another gala."

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