Her Wedding Dress novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Price

I picked up the check and read the number twice.

It was more money than my parents' house was worth.

"That's generous," I said.

"I'm a generous woman," Judith said. "Sign the paper from yesterday, take this, and go somewhere warm until the baby comes."

"And after the baby comes?"

"I'll be there. A nurse, a nanny, a good school."

"And me?"

"You'll have what you wanted from my son," she said. "Security."

I walked out of the study with the check in my hand.

She followed me down the hall, calling my name in a voice that had lost its polish.

"Autumn. Autumn, don't be foolish."

I walked into the dining room.

My parents turned. Tyler turned. Clifton's father looked up from the far end of the table.

Rhett half rose from his chair.

I held the check up where all of them could see it.

"Mrs. Ashdown just offered me this for my baby," I said. "It's for a great deal of money. She keeps the child, and I keep the cash."

My mother's mouth fell open.

"Put that down," Judith said sharply.

"No."

I tore it in half.

Then in half again.

I laid the pieces in the middle of the pot roast platter, on top of the cold gravy.

"The baby isn't for sale," I said. "And neither am I."

Nobody moved.

Clifton's father, for the first time in my memory, stared at his wife.

Judith's face was not smooth anymore.

Something flat and ugly showed under it.

"You'll be broke in a year," she said. "You'll come back on your knees."

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