Goodbye to the Man Who Betrayed Us novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: The Offer

I should've said no right there.

I didn't.

I stood in my mother's kitchen doorway with a wooden spoon in my hand, and I thought about it.

"Take the night," he said. "I'll come back after church tomorrow for your answer."

He picked his car keys off the counter.

"She's six, Grace. She's been blind for a third of her life. How long do you want to make her wait for your pride?"

Then he left.

I finished the kale soup.

I scrubbed the grill until it shone.

At nine I went out the back door into the lot.

A work light hung from the shed roof, and Rafael was under the hood of a customer's pickup with his sleeves pushed up.

He heard my step on the gravel and stood up.

"Raymond told me," he said.

"Raymond was in the lot."

"Raymond was behind the back door with his ear on the wood. He's not as quiet as he thinks."

"Take it," he said.

I stared at him.

"Take the deal, Grace."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"She gets her eyes. That's the whole thing. That's what your mama asked for with her last breath."

"And you?"

"I've got a lawyer and a recording. I'll fight it on my own."

"He wants me to sign a paper that says you killed her."

"I know what he wants."

"He wants me to give him my mother twice."

My voice cracked.

He threw his rag down on the fender.

"And I want that little girl to see the ocean," he said. "She tells me about it every day. The color. The noise. She's never seen it, and she talks about it like she's been."

"Don't you put this on me."

"I'm not putting it on you. I'm taking it off you."

"You don't get to be noble at me in a parking lot."

"Then where do I get to do it?"

We stood two feet apart in the work light, breathing hard.

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