The Imperfect Marriage novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Two Hundred Fifty

"I'll take this one alone," I said.

Ross looked at me for a long moment.

Then he nodded, and the crew chief called him away to look at a cracked weld on the dry dock.

He went without arguing.

That was the thing I kept noticing about him.

He did not hover.

His office was a glass box over the bay with a view of the freighter's open hull.

There was a steel desk, a model ship on a shelf, and a framed photograph of an old woman in a headscarf holding a wrench.

Lowell's father shut the door behind him and sat in Ross's chair.

I stayed standing.

"You're a smart girl," he said. "Respiratory therapist. Eight years. Fine reviews."

"You read my file."

"I read everyone's file."

He set the thick envelope on the desk and slid it across.

"Two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Cash. No paper, no lawyer, no signature."

I did not touch it.

"What's it for?"

"For you to get in your car today, drive to your father in Rochester, and not come back to this house. You'll be a free woman by tonight. You'll have your pump and a quarter million besides."

"The pump is already paid."

"Then you'll have a quarter million to spend as you like. You could buy a house."

"And Ross?"

"Ross loses the yard. My company buys it for a fair price. All hundred ninety jobs stay exactly where they are. Nobody is hurt."

"Except Ross."

"Ross will survive. He's survived worse."

I looked at the envelope.

I thought of the savings account with nine thousand dollars in it, and the apartment I'd have to leave, and my father's face when he said I'd sat down fast.

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