The Surrogate Wife novel · Chapter 16 of 16
Chapter 16: What I Carried
I looked at Peter for a long time in the gravel lot.
Behind him, the yard crew had gone back to sanding.
"Every Saturday," I said. "Nine to five. You come sober and on time. You don't cancel for a meeting."
"Okay."
"You learn how they eat. Ethan only eats pancakes. Lucas's grapes get cut in four. Noah gets pear, not banana."
"Pear. Okay."
"You take them to the dentist. You go to Ethan's school play. You sit through the whole thing."
"I will."
"And if you ever let your mother near them, you're done. Not supervised. Done."
He nodded.
He didn't argue.
That was the first time in six years he'd ever listened to me all the way to the end.
"Six months," I said. "Then we'll see."
"Thank you, Lil."
"Don't thank me. Show up."
He showed up.
I didn't expect it.
Every Saturday at nine he was on the sidewalk outside the bakery, holding coffee he didn't drink.
The first time, he burned the pancakes and Ethan told him so.
The second time, he forgot to cut the grapes and I made him sit on the floor and do it while Lucas watched.
By spring he knew all the words to the boat song.
In April, the visiting judge signed off on unsupervised Saturdays.
Peter cried in the hallway and pretended he had allergies.
Elaine took a plea in May.
Forgery and perjury.
Two years suspended, three years' probation, and five hundred hours of community service.
The judge assigned her to a family shelter in Norwich.
The paper said she was very good at filing and had never once been seen holding a baby.
She sold the Nantucket house and moved to Florida.
Tusk surrendered his law license.
The notary retired.
Kendra's charge was reduced to a misdemeanor for the recording.
The last I heard, she was selling real estate in Rhode Island.
The Ledger printed a full front page on the Boyle case in June.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–8 of The Surrogate Wife are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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