The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Election Night

At ten minutes to eleven on the ninth of March, the county clerk's number went up on the ballroom screen.

Four hundred and twelve votes, and Mats Brevik had won Duluth.

The room came apart.

Ragna screamed into her headset, and the tug crew in their company fleeces lifted a deckhand off the floor.

Mummo sat in a folding chair by the coffee urn with her hands folded over her purse, and nodded once.

Mats found me across the crowd.

He crossed the ballroom with people clapping his back and his cap pushed to the back of his head.

He did not stop until he had my face in both hands.

"Mayor," I said.

"Bridge," he said, and kissed me in front of everyone.

It was long and deep, and I felt it in my knees, and the room cheered it.

When he let me go, Ragna had her phone up, pointing at the lobby.

"He's here," she said. "He's conceding in person. He wants cameras."

We went down together, hand in hand, in the elevator with Ragna and two reporters.

Wayne stood in the hotel lobby under the chandelier in his quilted vest, with three television cameras on him.

His mother was nowhere to be seen.

His face was gray, and his hands were empty, with no speech in them.

"Captain," he said.

"Commissioner."

"I called to congratulate you," Wayne said, for the cameras. "The voters have spoken, and I respect that."

He held out his hand.

Mats shook it, once, and let go.

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