Madly Yours novel · Chapter 29 of 32

Chapter 29: Sentencing

I stood in the doorway and didn't move aside.

My mother didn't try to step past me.

She held out the flat thing against her chest.

It was a court filing, with a clerk's stamp in the corner, dated that afternoon at four thirty.

DECLARATION OF WENDY SHERIDAN, WITHDRAWING WITNESS STATEMENT.

I read the first paragraph on the step.

She'd sworn that she knew I could hear when she signed.

She'd sworn she signed anyway, because a man promised her the debt would vanish and Lexi would get my place.

She'd sworn it under penalty of perjury.

"My lawyer told me not to file it," she said. "He said it's a confession. He said they could charge me."

"I filed it anyway."

She wiped her face with the heel of her hand.

"I've been in the gallery all day. I heard everything Lexi read."

"I heard what I was to him. Something to see to."

I looked at her.

My voice was rough after the boardroom.

"Why?"

She heard me speak, and her face crumpled.

"Because for twelve years I've been the woman who married in," she said. "Who brought a girl with her. I made myself useful so nobody could send us back."

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