Claimed Hard by My Best Friend novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Asleep

My father sat at the end of the bar with a glass of ginger ale and both hands around it.

Flanagan's was dark except for the light over the register. Lucy stood by the door with her arms crossed, keeping watch.

"Tell me about the freeze," I said.

"Sit down, Katie."

"Tell me standing."

He rubbed his eyes.

"Four years ago, the week after you came home from school, a man in a black coat stopped by the bar," he said. "He said Mr. Mahoney sent his compliments. He said the paper on the bar was asleep."

"Asleep."

"No interest. No calls. Nobody coming around to count the register. He said it would stay that way, and I wasn't to tell you."

"Why not?"

"He said if you knew, you'd try to pay it off, and you'd ruin yourself doing it." My father looked down. "I'm an old gambler, Kate. I took the favor. I didn't ask who it was for."

I stood very still.

"Four years," I said.

"Not one dollar. Not once."

"The week after I came home from school."

"The week after he left, honey. Right to the day."

Lucy swore softly from the door.

I did the math, and I didn't like how fast it came.

Malachi had vanished from my life the same night Dane humiliated me.

Within the week, a man from the Mahoney house had put my father's debt to sleep.

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