He Left My Fever for His Ex, So I Took Our Daughter novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: On the Courthouse Steps
The recordings were all there, nine hundred of them, filed by date.
We listened to two before dawn, and I stopped after the second one because I couldn't stand any more.
The first was from the autumn before Maisie was born.
My own voice said, "Where do I sign?" and a pen scratched, and then a man's voice, Ingrid's assistant, said, "Just the flagged pages, Mrs. Halvorsen."
After I'd left the kitchen to throw up, Ingrid spoke, tinny and low on Tobin's phone.
"She won't read it. She's five months along and tired. Slide the guarantee under the deed."
The second file was dated the fever night.
It began with breathing, mine, wet and slow on the tile.
Tobin's voice said, "She's burning up, Ingrid."
"She's dramatic. Kiss her and come. Or I send the farm letter tonight."
Joel switched it off.
My hands were flat on the desk, and I kept them there until they stopped shaking.
At noon on Monday, we walked up the courthouse steps with the whole crew behind us.
Ingrid's sale was posted on a card table in the lobby, with a sheriff's deputy, a clerk and two men in good coats who had come to bid on a farm.
Ingrid stood on the top step in a camel coat, with her young assistant at her elbow and a glass of coffee in her hand.
She looked fresh, and I knew she had never doubted it.
Tobin's mother stood at the foot of the steps in her barn coat with her chin up.
Tobin stood beside her, shaved, in a suit that didn't fit.
"Four hundred twelve thousand dollars," Ingrid said to the crowd, bright and clear. "Due at noon. I'm sorry to do this in public, but the family left me no choice."
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