The Bride Changed. The Bill Didn't. novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Box 114

"What about the box?" I said.

Dalton glanced at Florence, at the officer smoking by the door, and back at me.

"Your father's safe deposit box. My mother wants what's in it."

"Your mother never met my father's box."

"She says he kept a notebook." His voice dropped. "She says he wrote everything down. Every inspection, every sign-off."

My chest tightened, and I kept my face still.

"You went to my bank on Friday," I said. "You asked a teller three times."

"I was told to."

"By who?"

He didn't answer, which was an answer.

Kelsey pulled at his sleeve. "Dalton, don't."

"Shut up, Kels." He wiped his mouth. "Mara, here's the deal. Give me the key to your father's box, and we leave the townhouse today. My mother drops the police report. The pearls are yours. I'll even sign the loan."

"You'll sign the loan."

"Yes."

"The one you told a lawyer was a gift."

His eyes shut for a second.

"She makes me say these things," he said.

I looked at him for a long moment.

I had loved this man for four years, and I could not find one piece of him that was mine to be sorry for.

"I'm going home now," I said. "I don't need your permission, and I don't need to trade you anything for my own front door."

I walked down the steps past him.

Florence followed, and I heard her mutter, "Good riddance."

We took Florence's van.

It was a twenty-minute drive, and I spent it with my hand pressed flat against my sternum.

Dalton's white car turned onto my street behind us.

My townhouse stood at the end of the block, brick with a green door.

Three neighbors were already on their stoops with coffee.

One of them had her phone out.

Kelsey's pink robe hung on my porch rail, and her boxes stood in my hall behind the open door.

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