My In-Laws Mocked the Tow Driver, Until They Learned I Was Kijin novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Whole Bridge

Meredith's POV

Grandpa went to bed at nine with Fern sitting in the chair beside him.

"Go on," Fern said, without looking up from her cards. "I've sat up with worse men than him."

"I heard that," Grandpa said, with his eyes shut.

I went across the lawn in the dark with my shoes in my hand.

The carriage house light was on, and the door was open an inch.

Floyd sat on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his shirt still on.

He wore the look he'd had in the Fulton yard, the one I had never seen in five years, and he was trying to put it away.

"You don't have to hide it from me," I said.

"I'm not."

"You're sitting in the dark with your face shut."

He almost smiled.

I shut the door behind me and sat down next to him on the bed.

"I want the whole bridge," I said. "Not the forum post. Not what Fern said at dinner. You."

He was quiet for a long time.

"My unit pulled out at dusk," he said. "The order came through, and the bridge was wired to drop at dawn, and nobody had told the people on the other side."

"The four hundred and twelve."

"They'd walked two days. Old women. A man carrying his mother. Children." His hands opened and closed between his knees. "The company coming up behind them was hours away. I had a rifle, a knife and a radio, and nobody left to ask."

"So you stayed."

"I cut the wires first, so no one could drop it. Then I walked up the road to meet them."

I didn't move.

"I took the first group in the dark, without a shot, so the rest would think the road was empty. I did that all night. They kept coming up in twos and threes, and I kept meeting them." His voice was very level. "By the time the sun came up there were twenty-two men on that road who weren't going home."

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

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