Left at City Hall, So I Called In His Life Debt novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Watch

At Brett's parents' anniversary dinner Jillian walks in as Jonas's wife, and Jonas takes the watch off Kelsey's wrist and puts it in Jillian's hand.

I signed my name where the clerk pointed, and my hand did not shake.

Jonas signed under me in a plain, fast line.

The clerk stamped the page twice and slid the certificate through the glass.

"Congratulations," she said, and she looked at me when she said it, not at him.

Jonas folded the paper once and put it inside my bag himself.

"Where do you have to be tonight?" he asked.

"At seven, my fiancé's parents are holding their thirty-fifth anniversary dinner," I said. "I'm on the list with a plus-one I never filled in."

"Then I'm the plus-one."

"They'll know who you are."

"Good," said Jonas.

I looked at the ring on my hand, the one Brett had picked out in a hurry.

I took it off and left it on the oak bench where he had abandoned me.

We drove into the hills in the back of a black car, and neither of us spoke until the gate came into view.

"You haven't asked why I called," I said.

"You'll tell me when you're ready."

"I want my watch back, and I want him to see me walk in with you."

"That's two things," Jonas said. "I'll only need one hand."

The Tourneur house had every window lit.

Brett's mother met us in the hall with her arms already out.

Diane Tourneur had kissed my cheek at every holiday for four years.

"Jillian, darling, there you are. Brett said the office had you tied up." She stopped, because Jonas had come in behind me. "And you've brought a friend."

"My husband," I said. "Jonas."

She laughed, a little uncertain, and waited for me to laugh too.

Jonas shook her hand and said nothing.

The dining room held forty people and one long table.

Brett's father stood at the head with a glass in his hand, and he saw Jonas before he saw me.

I watched his face go through three expressions.

The last one was fear.

"Mr. Arceneaux," he said. "This is a surprise."

"Mr. Tourneur," Jonas answered. "Your house is very warm."

The door at the far end opened.

Brett came in with his arm around Kelsey.

She wore a medical boot on her left foot and a pink cardigan, and she leaned on him with her whole weight.

On her right wrist, over the cuff of the cardigan, was my watch.

I had picked it out of a dealer's case the week my first big paycheck cleared.

I had eaten rice and eggs for six weeks afterward to cover rent.

Brett looked up and stopped walking.

"Jillian?"

His eyes went from my face to Jonas's hand at the small of my back.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at City Hall waiting."

"I waited an hour," I said. "Then I got married."

Nobody at the table breathed.

Brett laughed. It was a small, wrong sound.

"Okay. Okay, this is because I left. I get it. You're upset. But you can't joke about this in front of my parents."

"It isn't a joke."

I took the certificate out of my bag and held it up so the people nearest him could read the date.

Someone near the end of the table said, "Oh my God."

Kelsey's eyes filled. She did that quickly.

"Brett," she whispered. "I told you I should have stayed home. I don't want to cause any trouble."

"You're not causing trouble, Kels. Jillian is."

"I'd like my watch," I said.

The room went still again.

Brett's face tightened. "It was a gift. You gave it to me, and I gave it to Kelsey. It's a watch, Jillian."

"I paid for it with my first real paycheck. Give it back."

"She's been through enough today," Brett said. "She has a broken ankle."

"It was sprained when you texted me," I said. "Now it's broken. Which hospital?"

He didn't have an answer.

Kelsey pulled her wrist against her chest.

Jonas stepped around me and held out his hand to Kelsey, palm up.

"Miss Dunn," he said. "Please."

"Don't touch her," Brett said, and he stepped forward.

Brett's father said, very quietly, "Brett. Sit down."

Brett sat.

Kelsey let Jonas take her wrist, because the room was watching and she was a person who understood a room.

I undid the clasp myself.

The leather was warm from her skin.

I closed it around my own wrist, and for the first time that day, my hands felt like mine.

"Thank you," I said to the table. "Enjoy your anniversary."

Kelsey leaned in as I turned, her voice so low that only I heard it.

"Brett told me you pulled some rich man out of a wreck once. I watched how your husband looks at you, Jillian."

She smiled up at me with wet eyes.

"Men like that pay their debts," she said. "They don't keep what they paid."

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