I Gave Him Half My Liver, Then He Sold My Father's House novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Price of Being Quiet

Nell refuses Gregor's settlement, collects the sale requirements and conveyancer's name, and calls Elena for the title file after learning that her signature is the condition that can release or block completion.

Gregor turns towards the buyers. 'Helen will take you through.' He does not answer me. Cormac lowers his voice before I can demand it again.

'You have not read the payment schedule,' Cormac says, holding Gregor's settlement open to the signature page.

The scar beneath my coat pulls when I reach for the settlement. Its signature line expires with the sale in forty-eight hours.

'I have read it.'

'You read the first page.'

'I read the pages that matter.'

His mouth shifts. It is not quite amusement. He has the irritating habit of noticing when people lie by omission.

Behind us, Gregor opens the front door for the buyers. He takes the keys from his pocket with care, holding them out for the agent to see before placing them in the lock.

The new brass plate beside the bell carries another woman's name.

The agent steps inside first. The buyers follow her. One of them glances at my coat, then at the papers hidden beneath it, and decides I am waiting for payment.

Gregor looks over his shoulder. 'Nell, I think this is enough for tonight.'

He uses my name for the buyers. It makes him sound reasonable. It also makes the lie easier to remember.

Cormac watches him go. 'You are entitled to remain here while the matter is unresolved.'

'He changed the locks.'

'Yes.'

'He told the agent I am a former cleaner.'

'Yes.'

'And you are still asking whether I intend to sign.'

'I am asking because the answer affects my client, the seller, and your position. Those are separate problems, although your husband has tried to make them one.'

My position. He says it as if I am a parcel left in the wrong hallway.

I take the papers from my coat and smooth the top sheet against my palm. The settlement offers twenty thousand pounds.

It also requires me to confirm that I have no claim, no interest, and no objection to completion.

The figure is large enough to impress a stranger and small enough to insult anyone who knows the house. My father kept his accounts in the study drawer and repaired loose hinges himself. He would have laughed at the amount, then asked who had written the terms.

'If I accept the payment,' I say, 'what happens to the sale?'

'Completion proceeds once the release is signed and the conveyancer is satisfied that no further objection will be made.'

'What does satisfied mean?'

'Usually, a signed confirmation from the person who might otherwise interfere.'

'Usually is not a legal term.'

'It is a very popular one in estate agents' offices.'

The buyers laugh from inside the hall. Cormac does not look toward them. That is the first useful thing he has done since I met him.

'Which confirmation?' I ask.

'Your confirmation that you will not obstruct completion.'

'In what form?'

'A letter may be sufficient. The safer course would be a deed of release witnessed by a solicitor.'

'And the sale cannot complete without it?'

'Your husband has represented that the property is vacant and that he has authority to sell. Your presence complicates that representation.'

He says it gently. The sentence still has teeth.

I look at the front door. Gregor has left it open for the buyers, although he kept me outside in the snow. A woman inside asks whether the original fireplaces are included. Gregor answers before the agent can.

'Everything belongs with the house,' he says.

That includes the rooms my father measured himself. The study where he taught me to label files. The upstairs window where I watched my mother leave with one suitcase and never return.

I want to walk through that door, take the study key from the blue bowl, and put every book back where my father left it. Wanting it makes the locked door worse. I can still picture the dust on his sleeves when he fixed the window latch, muttering at the frame as if the house had offended him personally.

I change the subject before the memory reaches my face.

'Who is acting for the seller?'

Cormac studies me. 'The seller has his own conveyancer.'

'Name.'

'Why?'

'Because I am considering whether to communicate with that person directly.'

'You are considering signing the release.'

'You have already said that.'

He takes a pencil from his satchel but does not write.

'Gregor's conveyancer is Hargreaves Legal. The file is being handled by Martin Pell.'

I repeat the name once in my head. Martin Pell.

'And your client?' I ask.

'Fallow Homes. Their completion solicitor is my firm.'

'Your firm knows there is an objection.'

'Fallow Homes knows there is a person at the property who has not signed the release.'

'You are avoiding the word objection.'

'Because an objection has to be made in a form capable of being acted upon.'

He says this without looking at me. That is another useful thing.

I turn the settlement papers over. The reverse contains a list of documents Gregor claims to have supplied: probate papers, tax records, a declaration that the property was transferred into joint names, and a copy of a later codicil.

The codicil is not attached.

'You have not received the codicil,' I say.

Cormac's pencil touches the page. 'I have received a reference to it.'

'That is different.'

'Yes.'

The agent calls from the hallway. 'Mr Vale, the buyers would like to see the rear room.'

Gregor answers, 'Of course, Helen.'

He remembers the agent's name. He remembers every name when he needs a room to trust him.

Cormac looks toward the house. 'You should not remain here if you are unwell.'

'I am not unwell.'

The scar pulls when I reach for the papers. My body remembers the cost even when the person who received it has decided I am inconvenient.

'You have recently left treatment,' he says.

'Which is not the same thing.'

'I did not say it was.'

'You implied it.'

'I implied that standing outside a house in freezing weather may not be wise.'

'You are standing outside it too.'

'Yes, but I am billing someone for the experience.'

The joke is dry enough to survive the cold. I almost smile.

The front door opens wider. Gregor appears with the agent and the buyers behind him. He has picked up a small wooden box from somewhere inside. The agent leans closer as he opens it.

'You may not have seen this,' he says. 'It belonged to Nell's father.'

I cannot see the box from here, but I see the colour before I see the object. Pale blue enamel. A fish engraved across the face of a cufflink.

Gregor lifts it between two fingers.

'He gave it to me when Nell and I married,' he tells the buyers. 'He wanted me to understand that I was welcome here. The natural heir, in everything except the paperwork.'

The agent makes a sympathetic sound. One buyer nods.

I remember the cufflink. My father wore the matching one at my graduation. Gregor found this piece in a drawer after the funeral and asked whether he could keep it. I said yes because he was crying, and because I was still learning how much permission could cost.

Gregor catches me watching him. His expression softens for the room.

'Nell has had a difficult time,' he says. 'The treatment, the bills, the confusion. I am trying to help her leave with dignity.'

The agent looks at my coat again. Her sympathy returns, practiced and expensive.

Cormac steps between her view and mine. 'You have what you need.'

'For now,' I say.

He lowers his voice. 'The release is not the only document they will require.'

'No.'

'If you intend to review the offer, do it before the conveyancer sends a final requisition.'

'When will that be?'

'It may already have been sent.'

'And what does it request?'

'A fresh confirmation that you will not obstruct completion.'

I fold the papers and slide them inside my coat. Gregor watches the movement from the doorway, pleased by what he thinks it means.

'I knew you would see sense,' he says. 'You always were practical, Nell.'

He thinks the money has done its work. Let him keep that belief. I have his offer, his terms, the name of the man handling the sale, and the exact sentence they need from me.

Cormac opens the van's side gate for me, then stops before touching my arm.

'Gregor has listed you as the person most likely to provide that confirmation,' he says.

I take out my phone and call the only solicitor who once watched me find a buried restriction everyone else had missed.

Elena answers on the second ring. 'Dane, speak.'

'I need the title file for my father's house before nine.'

Behind me, Gregor turns the new key in the lock.

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