They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Seal on the Lie

Oswin put the folded registration document in my mother's hands and told her to read the line that ended her protection.

'Your cottage is gone,' he said. 'Read the line.'

My mother held the paper without opening it. Her cough had worsened since the move, and she kept one hand beneath her ribs, pressing against the pain.

'Read it to me,' she said.

Oswin's mouth tightened. 'The text is clear.'

'Then it should survive being heard.'

Hadley stood beside the stove with her shoulder against the stone. Two patrol wolves had entered behind her, then three more. They kept their coats on. They had not come to visit.

I moved the claim board from beneath my medical text and set it on the table. Twelve bone and iron tokens struck the wood in separate clicks. Red wax marked each patrol hand.

Oswin saw them. His gaze went to the board, then to me.

He had expected the kennel room to make us smaller.

I waited until my mother unfolded the paper.

'It says the registration ended on the first day of winter,' she read. 'The cottage became pack property on that date.'

Elder Prewitt stood beside Oswin, white office cord clean against his coat. He had once spoken for my father at the memorial rite. He had pressed Corvin's hand before the whole pack and promised our family would be provided for.

'The order was issued under standing classification,' Prewitt said. 'The property seizure followed the record.'

'Which record?' I asked.

His pale eyes settled on the claim board. 'The registration document.'

'That is a document. I asked for the record.'

'Your feelings about the process are noted and will not affect it.'

'Good. I brought arithmetic instead.'

Hadley's mouth moved once. She looked down before the smile could become public.

Oswin unfolded a second sheet from his satchel. 'The claim board is not relevant to dependent registration.'

'It is relevant to coal, food, and room assignment. The patrol wolves are paying those claims because your office revoked my mother's travel scrip and took the only house assigned to us.'

'The scrip was revoked by the Alpha.'

'And the cottage?'

'Reclassified under pack law.'

The answer came too quickly. Oswin had rehearsed it. He had probably read it from the same page until the words stopped sounding like a choice.

I reached for the registration document.

He pulled it back. 'You have no authority to alter a sealed office record.'

'I am not altering it.'

'The document must remain in official custody.'

'Then stop holding it over my mother's lap.'

Prewitt lifted one hand. 'The document will be examined by the witness present.'

'You mean yourself?'

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