Chapter 23: 4:30

The money came on Monday, at 9:02 in the morning.

I was in the nurse's office with a first grader's bloody knee when my phone buzzed against the cabinet.

It was my banking app.

Deposit: $41,000.00.

A second deposit came a minute later, labeled Interest: $412.50.

There was a text from a number I had blocked and then unblocked on purpose.

Done. Please stop the clips.

I did not answer Travis.

I put a bandage on the knee and the sticker on the bandage.

Then I called Kelsey from the supply closet.

"The board voted at seven," she said.

Her voice was small and steady.

"Mom is off Landry Motors. Travis is on leave."

"Where are you?"

"In my apartment. Alone." She laughed, a little wetly. "It's quiet. I forgot what that sounded like."

"Come to Saturday dinner."

"Leah..."

"You can ask me now," I said. "I'm ready to hear it."

She was quiet for a long moment.

"I'm sorry," Kelsey said.

"I know," I said. "Bring a pie."

On Saturday the farmhouse was full.

The principal had brought another pie, and the secretary had brought a casserole nobody had asked for.

Two of Bruce's mechanics stood on the porch in their church clothes, passing a thermos.

Kelsey sat on the swing with a pie in her lap.

Whitney sat beside her in a gray wool coat, with a suitcase by the steps.

She was leaving for Nashville in the morning.

She came to find me in the kitchen while I was cutting bread.

"I'm not asking you to like me," Whitney said.

"Good."

"I walked into your school with a coffee and an offer. I did it well."

She turned her paper cup around in her hands.

"I wanted you to know that was me, not someone else."

Keep reading free with an account. Start His Ex Wore My Ring, So I Married His Rival Instead from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.