Chapter 20: The Offer

Russ's POV

On Tuesday the petition was withdrawn.

Ruby's lawyer called at seven in the morning to say so.

Nolan's attorney had read Kristen's statement.

He had also watched the parish video that forty people had sent around, and he had told the judge his client's papers were mistaken.

Ruby screamed into a pillow, then laughed, then kissed me with her mouth still open.

I left for town an hour later, because the truck needed brakes.

I had four hundred dollars, and the brakes cost three.

The shop was on Foster Road, with a gravel lot and a hand-lettered sign.

I was sitting on the tailgate with a coffee, waiting on the front pads.

A grey Volvo wagon turned in off the street.

It parked beside me.

Nolan got out wearing sunglasses.

He looked thinner than a week before.

"Hello, Russ."

"No."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"You don't need to."

"Let me buy you a coffee."

"I've got one."

"Then let me sit."

He sat on the bumper of his own car, three feet away, and took his sunglasses off.

His eyes were red.

This time I was not sure it was an act.

"The hearing is off," he said. "You win. I'm not going to fight it."

"Good."

"But I'm going to lose the house, Russ. The house, the car, probably my job."

"That's what happens."

"Mom's not talking to me. Kristen has a lawyer."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Husband Who Lied to Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.