The Day I Divorced Him, I Became His Landlord novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: Rent Is Due
On Monday morning, at ten o'clock, my husband came to the tasting room to sign his own lease.
I had given Joaquin the little white bottle at dawn.
He drove it to a pharmacist the lawyer trusted in Napa, and then he went back to being my brother, standing against the tasting room wall with his arms folded.
The room was a long stone hall with barrels along one side and a polished bar down the other.
Nine of the crew stood by the doors with their hats in their hands.
Nobody had told them to come, and nobody left.
Conrad arrived with his own attorney and Courtney a step behind.
She wore the emerald necklace.
She had worn it to bed, I guessed, and she wore it to my lease signing.
"Mr. Ashbury," my lawyer said, and pushed the pages across the bar. "Twelve months. The manor is thirty-eight thousand dollars a month, due on the first."
"Ashbury Cellars pays nineteen thousand for the cellars and the vines," I said. "Courtney has the pool house at nine."
Conrad read the first page and the last.
He didn't look up at me.
"Without a lease I can't crush a single grape on this land," he said to his attorney. "Is that right?"
"That's right."
"And the harvest is eleven days from done."
"Yes."
He took the pen.
For a moment I thought he might snap it.
He signed his name with a long, flat stroke, and the crew shifted their feet.
"You'll regret this," he said, very quietly. "People here don't like it when outsiders think they can own a valley."
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Day I Divorced Him, I Became His Landlord from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend