Not His Wife novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Cutler Street

The duplex on Cutler Street had a green door and a yellow light over it, and the door opened before I knocked.

Alyssa stood there in a gray sweater with her hair brushed, looking rested.

"You came."

"I said I would."

"You didn't tell Anson to wait down the block, did you?"

"He's at my house with my aunt," I said. "I told him I'd call when I was out."

"Good girl."

I walked past her and she shut the door.

The front room was small and clean.

The little girl sat on the rug in front of the television with the stuffed rabbit in her lap, and a cartoon played with the sound turned low.

She looked up at me.

"Vy," she said, and smiled.

Something turned over in my chest, because she had always called me that.

"Hi, sweet pea," I said.

"Take your coat off," Alyssa said. "Sit. I made coffee."

I kept my coat on and sat at the kitchen table.

It was the same pine table Alyssa had used for six years, with a ring where Reed's mug always went.

She set a cup in front of me and sat down across.

There was a single sheet of paper on the table between us, and a blue pen lying on it.

"Read it," she said.

I read the first two lines.

I, Ivy Tolbert, did on March fourteenth knowingly sign a quitclaim deed to Dorsey Lathrop Holdings.

I pushed it back across the table.

"No."

"You haven't read the part where I forgive you."

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