My Fiancé and Brothers Left Me at the Altar for My Adopted Sister novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Bail

The county jail opened its front desk at eight on Sunday morning.

I was there at seven fifty, in jeans and one of Dad's old flannel shirts, with my savings book in my purse.

I had not slept.

I had sat on my kitchen floor in the wedding dress until three.

Rafe's cracked phone had been in my lap, and I had read until my eyes blurred.

At four I took the dress off and put it in the bathtub.

I couldn't stand to see it hanging up.

"Bail on Stender," the clerk read from her screen. "Violation of a protective order. It's set at two thousand five hundred. Are you family?"

"No."

"Are you the protected party?"

"No."

"Then it doesn't matter what you are," she said, and almost smiled. "Cash or card?"

I paid with my card.

It was the honeymoon money.

Kent had said we should go somewhere nice and he would handle the rest.

It felt very good to spend it.

They brought Rafe out forty minutes later.

He was still in the black suit, and now it had a long tear down one sleeve.

He looked at me, and at the clerk, and at the paper in his hand.

"Someone paid my bail," he said.

"I did."

He didn't say thank you.

He walked past me out of the building, onto the front steps, and stopped there in the thin morning sun with his back to me, flexing his fingers where the cuffs had been.

I followed him.

"I have your phone," I said.

He turned.

"You took it."

"It fell out of your jacket. I picked it up before the police could."

"Did you read it?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Three years," I said. "Starting the week after my father's funeral."

← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend