The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away novel · Chapter 30 of 32
Chapter 30: Final
On Monday morning I took the envelope out to the walnut tree.
It was cold and bright, the kind of February morning when the Old Block looks dead and isn't.
The walnut was bare.
Grandpa's old bench under it was wet with dew, and I sat on it anyway.
I read the paper one more time.
The line was still there.
As of today, February 22, I was not married to anybody.
I'd expected it to feel like something.
Fireworks. A door slamming. Crying in the dirt.
It felt like the morning after a long pick, when the last bin is in and your hands don't know what to do yet.
The dog came down off the porch and leaned his whole weight against my shin.
I went back inside and lifted the lid of the sugar bowl.
The ring was still in there, gritty with sugar, where I'd dropped it in October.
I rinsed it under the tap.
I didn't put it on the chain.
I put it in the pocket of my work shirt and buttoned the pocket.
I knew what it was for.
Goldie's birthday was in three weeks, and she'd been asking for the same thing since August.
Then I went to work at my own winery, because the barrels needed topping and it was Monday.
At six o'clock Augie came across the road with two grocery bags and his own cast-iron pan.
"I'm making dinner," he said.
"You make dinner every Monday."
"I'm making a better dinner."
He made short ribs, braised all afternoon on my stove in a bottle of my 2025.
He made his bread.
He made mashed potatoes with enough butter to frighten a cardiologist.
Goldie set the table and put the brass D from the old Arnott sign in the middle.
Winona came out of her room in a clean blouse.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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