He Married My Best Friend While I Gave Birth, So I Left novel · Chapter 39 of 48

Chapter 39: What Tara Signed

Lacey's POV

Tara slept days and worked nights, so I came to her door on Monday at three.

I carried a paper sack of Honeycrisps that Byron had insisted I bring.

She opened it in a bathrobe with her hair flat on one side.

"I told Byron not to send anything," she said.

"He didn't send it. I'm carrying it." I held up the sack. "You can throw them at me."

She looked at the orange notice taped over her peephole, and then she stepped back and let me in.

The three boxes still stood in the hall.

The kitchen was clean, and the coffee maker was gurgling.

On the counter stood one cup, and a pair of work sneakers dried on newspaper.

She took the apples and put them in the sink without a word.

"Cal's at school," she said. "He's got practice till five. You want coffee?"

"Please."

She poured two cups and sat across from me at the small table.

Behind her head, on the door frame, I could see the pencil lines.

"I came about the paper you signed in August," I said.

Tara's hand stopped halfway to her cup.

"Byron got the story from his brother yesterday, in a parked car. Brady said there's a second paper, and your name is on it."

"Brady," she said. "Ray."

"Yes."

"Byron told me on my stoop, and I still can't say it." She set the cup down. "He sat in my kitchen eating my eggs."

"What did you sign, Tara?"

She laughed once, without any humor.

"It was a sworn statement. A notary came with him, a woman in a gray coat. She watched me sign it, and she stamped it, and she left."

Tara folded her arms.

"It said I told Byron I was pregnant, the August I left. It said he looked at me and told me to handle it, and he signed the waiver in front of me."

"Did he?"

"I never told him." Her voice shook. "That's what I can't forgive myself. I never told him. I left a note on the cider stand's counter, and I took the bus."

"What did the note say?"

"That I was going home. That's all."

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