I Secretly Read Every Love Letter He Wrote Me, Then He Stopped Writing Them novel · Chapter 27 of 32

Chapter 27: Not Fine

On the thirtieth of July, Clara sat on a wooden bench outside Courtroom B.

Hannah sat on one side of her and a county deputy sat on the other.

Frank came down the hall in an orange jumpsuit, with his hands cuffed in front of him.

He had lost weight in two months.

The leather jacket was gone, and so was the grin, but he found it again as soon as he saw her.

"There she is," he said. "There's my girl."

"Mr. Mercer," the deputy said. "Five minutes, and you stay on that side of the bench."

Frank sat. He kept his cuffed hands on his knees and looked at Hannah.

"Who's the librarian?"

"I own a bookshop," Hannah said. "I'm here to be bored. Go ahead."

Clara kept her backpack on her lap.

For years, a sentence like this from him had gone straight into her stomach.

Now she waited to see if it would, and it didn't.

"What do you want, Dad?"

"I want to say I'm sorry." He leaned in, and his voice dropped to the gentle one. "I'm sorry. I did wrong. I was in a hole, Clarabell, and I couldn't see a way out."

"You signed my name."

"I signed it because I knew you'd never let me ruin you. You'd cover it. You always cover it."

He said it kindly, and he meant it as praise.

Hannah's pen stopped moving on the notebook she had brought.

"Here's what I'm asking," Frank said. "Tell the judge it was a family thing. Tell him you take it back. I do six months, not two years. I come out, and I stay clear. You won't see me. I swear on your mother."

"You swore on my mother when you took the scholarship refund."

"That was different."

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