Her Wedding Dress novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Every Penny

Autumn's POV

Clifton agreed to everything before I sat down.

We met in my lawyer's conference room on the ninth floor.

A long table lay between us, with a pitcher of water nobody touched.

He looked like he had lost fifteen pounds.

His lawyer, the man in the gray suit, slid a packet across the wood.

"Mr. Ashdown consents to all terms," he said.

My lawyer read it with her glasses on the end of her nose.

"The condo on Bardstown Road," she said. "Sold, and the proceeds to Ms. McAlister, since her savings paid the deposit."

She turned a page.

"Her name goes back on her own accounts. Child support, the amount we named."

"Yes."

"Custody."

Clifton spoke before his lawyer could.

"She has the baby," he said. "I'm not going to contest it."

I looked up.

His eyes were red, and they stayed on the table.

"I'd like to see her," he said. "That's all I want to ask. I'll do it any way you say."

"Saturday mornings," I said. "At my house. For an hour, with me in the next room."

"Yes."

"Until I decide otherwise."

"Yes."

"My name is McAlister," I said. "On everything."

"It always was," he said quietly.

I waited for it to feel like winning.

It felt like closing the door on a room where I had lived for ten years.

It was quiet, and I was tired.

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