Four Men Crept Into My Childhood Room, So I Kept My Eyes Shut novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Hearing
She stopped at the foot of the porch steps and would not come up them.
"I'm not here for him," she said. "I drove myself. He thinks I'm at my sister's."
"Then why are you here?" Abel said.
"Because he told the buyer the farm was signed, and he told me the same thing, and I've sat in his kitchen and watched him practice her signature on a legal pad."
She held out a manila folder.
I took it.
Inside were pages of Brock's handwriting, my name written forty times down the sheet, each one a little closer to mine.
"I'll testify Monday," she said. "I don't want his ring."
"Why now?"
"Because I saw your face in the churchyard," she said. "And I thought, she's the only one who's ever told him no."
She took the ring off and put it in my hand, and drove away.
The county courthouse was the only brick building in three towns.
On Monday the five of us sat in the front row in our funeral clothes, and Brock sat across the aisle with two lawyers and a stack of binders.
The judge was a gray-haired woman who read his petition twice without smiling.
"Mr. Ellery," she said. "Your petition says Ms. Kilbourn agreed in writing to sell her interest."
"She did, Your Honor."
"Ms. Kilbourn, did you?"
I stood.
"No, ma'am."
"Your Honor," Brock's lawyer began.
"Sit down."
The fiancée took the stand in a plain gray dress.
She laid the pages out on the rail in front of the judge, one at a time.
She said, in a shaking voice, that Brock had spent a week practicing my signature, and she named the night.
Keep reading free with an account. Start Four Men Crept Into My Childhood Room, So I Kept My Eyes Shut from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →
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