My Stepmother Sold Me to the Alpha Who Hates My Father's Name, and the Child He Wants Is the Proof That Clears It novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Dell
Dell could not have hit the house.
He did not know how to hold the rifle.
He had it by the middle with the muzzle swinging.
When he shouted it swung with him, up at the porch and down at the gravel and across the road at nobody.
He was drunk, and he had been drunk since the night of the fire.
I could see it from a hundred yards.
The McCracken men were already coming.
I heard boots on the gravel and the beta's heavy voice behind me.
They had come out of the barn and the mill and the bunkhouse with their coats half on.
They were running.
"Stop," I said.
I said it loudly, and I turned and put my hand up.
"Stop where you are. All of you."
They stopped.
I had not expected it.
I stood in the middle of the drive with a ledger under my arm and every man on the McCracken farm looking at me.
On the porch, Ned had risen.
He had thrown off the blanket and stood with his hands open at his sides.
He did not come toward the gate.
He looked at me, and I saw that he was going to let me do this.
"Luna," said the beta, hoarsely. "He's got a gun."
"He's got my brother's name," I said. "I'll talk to him."
I gave the beta the ledger and my father's second coat.
He took them in both hands and stood there holding them.
I walked down the drive alone.
The gravel crunched under my boots.
Dell had stopped shouting.
He stood with both hands on the top bar of the gate and watched me come.
His eyes were swollen almost shut.
"Cal," he said.
"Hello, Dell."
"Don't come any closer."
"I'm not," I said.
I stopped ten feet short, in the middle of the drive.
I did not look at the rifle.
I had sat with men in worse shape than this, and every one of them had wanted the same thing.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepmother Sold Me to the Alpha Who Hates My Father's Name, and the Child He Wants Is the Proof That Clears It are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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