The Widow's Fate They Chose Was My Escape Plan novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Page Nine

"Why did you sign?" Rory asked again.

I kept hold of his hand.

He did not pull it away.

"Because I wanted to be a widow," I said.

I had decided in the car to tell him the truth.

If he was being poisoned, he deserved a wife who did not lie.

"My brothers sold me this morning," I said. "They sold me once before, in a different way, and I won't be sold a third time."

"A widow can't be sold."

"A widow is a woman nobody owns. I thought I'd marry a sick man, move far away and be free."

I looked at his face.

"I didn't think you'd be awake."

He stared at me.

Then he laughed, a short dry sound that turned into a cough.

"Most brides cry," he said. "You have a plan."

"You're welcome."

"You came into my bed to bury me."

"Into your house. I did not plan to bury you." I took a breath. "I planned to wait."

"That's the same thing."

"It is not. Waiting is only waiting."

He studied me for a long moment with eyes that missed nothing.

"My uncle will not let you wait," he said. "You don't know what you signed."

"A prenup."

"Did you read it?"

"The last page."

He closed his eyes.

"Get it."

The Keane envelope was in my bag by the chair.

I tipped the papers onto the blanket and found the thick middle of the agreement.

I began at page one.

Nobody had ever taught me to read a contract at one in the morning with a poisoned man watching.

I read it anyway.

Pages two to eight were money and property.

Page nine was one paragraph with a heading.

Upon the death of the Keane heir, it said, the surviving spouse shall reside in the Keane household for the remainder of her natural life, under the care of the head of the family.

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