Chapter 15: Sworn

Knox's POV

I signed it at eight, in a notary's office on Superior Street, with my left hand.

It ran four pages.

I had written it in capitals out of habit, and then typed it out again.

Nobody could say I was hiding in it.

The notary stamped the last page and asked if I wanted a copy.

"Four," I said.

At nine I carried them into the dean's office in Founders' Hall.

The dean sat behind his desk, with two trustees in the leather chairs.

They were the two who had not answered when Yvonne took her vote by phone.

I had asked for them by name, and I did not know why they had come.

"Sit, Knox," the dean said.

"I'll stand. This is quick."

I put a copy in front of each of them.

"It says what my stepmother wanted from me on Monday night," I said.

"And what she promised me when I refused."

One trustee, a retired judge, put on his glasses.

"It says Siri Lindqvist's five pages were in Yvonne's folder, and that she let me take them."

"It says there are two keys to the Reading Desk, and she holds one."

I took the scorched leaf out of my breast pocket and set it on the desk, in its sleeve.

"This came out of her fireplace. The handwriting is Siri's. Ask anyone who has read her notebooks."

"And the last page?" the dean said.

"The last page is mine."

I had written it plain.

That I was N.W., and had written to a sophomore for two years.

That I had let my brother take the credit.

That I had never touched her until she was twenty-two, in my own attic, and she had chosen it.

The judge read to the end.

He took off his glasses.

"You understand what you've signed."

"Yes."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Northern Wind Couldn't Keep Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.