Done in Fifteen Years novel · Chapter 12 of 32
Chapter 12: Notarized
I walked across the dance floor in my turquoise fringe and stopped in the doorway next to Deke.
The camera light was hot on my face.
I looked at the signature.
It was my name.
It was my R, with the big loop I'd made since third grade.
It was close, and it wasn't mine.
"I never signed that," I said.
"It's notarized, honey," Darrell said. "June fourteenth, last year. You agreed we were separated. You waived page nine." He grinned for the camera. "You walked away from it a year ago. You just forgot."
"I didn't sign anything."
"Then where were you?"
He let that hang in the camera light.
"Sunday, June fourteenth, two o'clock in the afternoon. Where were you, Raylene?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Darrell laughed again.
He tucked my petition in his shirt pocket.
"Happy anniversary," he said, and went down the steps.
The lawyer snapped his briefcase shut and followed him.
The server stood alone on the porch a second longer.
He tipped an invisible hat to me and went back to his car.
I didn't sleep.
I lay in the band room and tried to remember a Sunday a year ago.
Last June was a blur of contests.
Fort Worth, Lubbock, Tulsa, Kansas City, a pit every weekend and a pit every weekday in between.
Doreen booked every trip.
Doreen kept the calendar.
Every picture I'd taken that whole year was on a phone with its battery out, on a plan Doreen paid for.
I couldn't have told you which Sunday was which.
They'd all been the same Sunday.
Fire at three, meat at five, and somebody else's name on the trophy.
At six I came downstairs.
Vernie had made pancakes.
There were fifteen candles stuck in a stack of them, and a sign over the counter in Macey's handwriting on the back of a menu.
Keep reading free with an account. Start Done in Fifteen Years from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →
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