Left at City Hall, So I Called In His Life Debt novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Say It to My Face

Jillian's POV

At midnight I stood in Jonas's front hall with my bag on my shoulder.

The house was quiet.

The reporters had been moved off the drive by two security men at ten, and Muriel had gone home at eleven with a bag of leftover roast and her copper hair in a scarf.

Brett had been charged.

Kelsey was in a county holding cell, with a lawyer she could no longer afford.

Everything I had come to Jonas for was finished.

I had set the terms myself, in his study: one year, my name on the lease, and when it's done, we're even.

It was done in ten days instead of twelve months.

I had packed because it was the honest thing to do.

Jonas stood at the foot of the stairs with his tie off and his sleeves rolled to the elbow.

He did not block the door.

He stood with his hands at his sides.

"You can leave any day," he said. "You only have to say it to my face."

"I know your rule."

"Then say it."

I looked at him.

I looked at the scar on his arm, and the gray at his temples, and the tired lines at the corners of his eyes.

I opened my mouth.

"I'm," I said.

The word would not come.

"I'm leaving," I tried again, and it died in my throat.

The hall clock ticked.

Jonas's face did not change, but his hand closed slowly at his side.

"Jillian."

"Wait."

"I'm waiting."

"I've been standing here for four minutes trying to say a two-word sentence."

"I know. I've been counting."

"Don't count."

"I count everything you do," he said.

I let the bag slide off my shoulder to the floor.

It thumped on the marble, and neither of us looked at it.

"You think I called you because you were the strongest weapon I had," I said.

His eyes sharpened.

"Kelsey said that."

"You said it first, in your head. I can see it on your face every time I leave a room."

"Jillian."

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