Chapter 20: The Seat

Malachi's POV

Nobody at the table breathed.

My father looked at me over the page. He didn't seem surprised.

"Say why," he said.

"Read the third line."

He glanced down. "I know what it says."

"Read it out. For the room."

My father's good hand moved across the paper, and he read it in his slow, clear voice.

"The heir holds the Flanagan note. Forgive or collect, at his pleasure."

"At his pleasure," I said. "That's what you're offering me. Her father's name in my pocket."

"It's a paper, Malachi. It's one line."

"It's the same line Dane wanted."

I kept my eyes on him.

"I'd hold the one thing that decides whether she can leave."

Under the table, Kate's hand found my knee.

I hadn't said a word to her since we sat down. She had kept her promise to speak for herself, and I had kept mine.

She pressed her palm flat on my leg and held it there.

I looked at nobody else.

"I won't be the man who holds it," I said. "Cross it out."

My father studied me for a long time. The corner of his mouth moved.

"That's the answer I wanted," he said. "I would have burned the page if you'd signed."

"Then why write it?"

"Because Dane had to read it and believe it was worth taking." He tapped the paper with his good finger. "Cross it."

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