The One Who Waited novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Until the Holder Marries

Tamara didn't say hello when I walked into her office on Monday.

She said, "Luke Darrow?"

Then she said it again, louder, so the whole public defender's floor could hear.

"LUKE DARROW?"

"You got my text."

"I got a text at five in the morning that said, quote, staying with Luke, don't panic, more later. I panicked. I've been panicking since Friday. Sit down."

Her office was the size of a closet.

Case files covered every surface, including the second chair, so I sat on a box of them.

Tamara leaned across her desk in her navy suit and her running shoes.

"Luke Darrow, who sat behind us in chemistry. Luke Darrow, who wrestled. Luke Darrow, who got arrested the night you got your back opened up."

"Yes."

"You're living with him."

"In a separate room. With a lock. He has rules."

"Of course he has rules. He was the only boy in Rome who returned his library books."

"And I'm marrying him on the thirty-first."

Tamara put her coffee down.

She looked at me for a long time.

Then she reached into her drawer, took out a tiny bottle of hotel vodka, and poured it into the coffee.

"Okay," she said. "Start at the beginning. And then show me the thing Derek said in your kitchen."

I told her everything.

The podcast. The guardrail. The call from the ER. The slip in the tin.

She cried at the slip.

Tamara never cried. She cried at the slip and then pretended she had something in her eye from a file.

Then I opened my email and found the PDF.

Seven years old. Signed on a laptop at our kitchen counter while Derek stood behind me rubbing my shoulders.

Irrevocable voting proxy. Steady, Inc.

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