Dumped at the Courthouse, Married by Noon novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Note

Lyle Voigt names the price of the missing bride in the courthouse hall, and Jean finds her own bank account empty.

"My wife," Emmett said.

He did not raise his voice.

He put his hand on the small of my back, and it stayed there, warm through the thin dress.

Lyle Voigt looked at me.

"Your wife," he said.

"As of three minutes ago."

"My daughter is parking the car."

"Your daughter's phone is off, Lyle. So is yours when I call it."

"She is on her way."

"It is 11:34. The license counter closed at eleven for anyone but us."

Lyle's jaw moved.

He was sixty-three, I would learn, and he looked like a man who had never been told no by a person standing closer than a phone call.

He turned to the judge.

"This ceremony is irregular."

"It's signed," the judge said, and put her pen in her pocket. "Gentlemen, take it into the hall."

We took it into the hall.

The two couples on the bench had given up pretending to read.

Liesl hooked her cane over her arm and walked beside me, and Pretzel the basset hound walked beside her, belly almost on the floor.

Lyle stopped in the middle of the marble and set his feet.

"Emmett," he said. "I will say this once, in front of your grandmother, so nobody remembers it wrong."

"Say it."

"We had an agreement. My daughter, my company, your brewery. In return I forgive the note."

"I remember."

"You are in default of that agreement as of this morning."

"Your daughter didn't come."

"She will."

"She didn't."

Lyle did not blink.

"The note is eighteen million dollars. Under the loan terms, if the merger fails to close, it falls due ninety days from today. That is January fifteenth."

He said the date.

I felt Emmett go still beside me.

"I know the terms," Emmett said.

"I would think you do. You also have a wife who works with dogs."

I opened my mouth.

"Cats too," I said.

Lyle's eyes came to me.

"I'm sorry?"

"I work with cats too. I'm a vet tech. Dogs, cats, the occasional rabbit. I'd hate you to underestimate the department."

Somebody on the bench made a sound that might have been a laugh.

Lyle looked at me for a long moment.

"Young lady," he said, "you've made a very costly mistake."

"I've made a few today," I said. "I'm keeping a list."

"You have no idea what this man owes."

"Eighteen million, you said."

"To me."

"It's a big number," I said. "It's also a loan. I've never in my life heard of someone being punished for repaying a loan on time."

"Jean," Emmett said, very softly.

"I'm just asking questions, dear," I said, and I heard my mother in my mouth.

Liesl made a noise that was suspiciously close to a cough.

Lyle straightened his tie pin.

"January fifteenth," he said to Emmett. "And I will be at the Founders' Dinner on the ninth. Your grandfather's dinner. Three hundred guests. I intend to make a toast."

"A toast," Emmett said.

"About the future of both our families. You may want to arrive with a better answer than this."

He gestured at me, and I understood that I was the answer.

I took one step forward, and Emmett's hand slid with me.

"Mr. Voigt," I said. "I'm sorry your daughter didn't come. I really am. If she's okay, I hope she's somewhere happy."

For the first time, something crossed his face that was not contempt.

It was brief and I did not understand it.

Then it was gone.

"Good day," he said, and walked toward the elevators with his coat swinging.

Nobody spoke until the doors closed.

Then Liesl rapped her cane on the floor.

"I liked the part about cats," she said.

"Grandma," said Emmett.

"I liked it. That's all."

Pretzel lay down on my foot again, with a heavy sigh.

I looked at the steel ring on my finger.

I looked at the judge's door, the trash can and the bench.

My legs began to feel like they belonged to someone else.

"I need to sit," I said.

Emmett took me to the bench.

He did not hold me up.

He stood where I could see him, which I understood was on purpose.

"You were good," he said.

"I was shaking."

"I couldn't tell."

"I think I'm in shock."

"Probably," he said. "Do you want a coffee? Water? I could carry you to the car."

"I want to go to my bank," I said.

He didn't ask why.

"I'll drive."

The bank was a small branch off Grand Avenue, where I had opened my account at nineteen.

I walked in wearing a wedding dress and a man's suit jacket, because Emmett had put his over my shoulders in the car.

The teller knew me.

She looked at the dress, at Emmett and at the jacket, and said nothing at all.

"I need to see what happened to the joint savings," I said.

She typed.

Her face changed.

"Ms. Almquist," she said carefully, "I wasn't on this morning. But I can print the withdrawal slip."

She slid a paper across the counter.

A single line of blue ink sat at the bottom, with the amount written in numbers and in words.

Forty-one thousand and 00/100 dollars.

The signature was Cody Lasker's.

The time stamp read 8:40 AM.

Under it, in the "memo" line, he had written two words in his neat salesman's hand.

"House fund."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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