My Sister's Baby Was My Husband's, So I Wed Beside Them novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: You Swore

Hailey came to the boat yard on Tuesday at ten.

I was standing in the office doorway with a mug of coffee.

Hamish had asked me to learn where he kept his invoices, and I had said yes at once.

Nine men in work boots were hauling a hull onto blocks.

Two customers stood by the chandlery shed, arguing over rope.

A gray car turned in at the gate and stopped in the gravel.

My sister got out with the baby on one arm and a diaper bag on the other.

She wore the pink coat.

Her face was bare of makeup, and her eyes were swollen.

"I need to speak to Hamish," she said.

The men stopped hauling.

Hamish came out of the shed wiping his hands on a rag.

He did not hurry.

"Miss Holloway."

"I'm not Miss anything now." Her voice was ragged. "I walked out on Dalton, and he let me go. He's rescinded his name on the paper. He says he has no claim on my son and he'll fight any support order."

"I heard."

"So you owe me."

"Do I."

"Your brother's child needs a home and money," Hailey said, loud enough for the yard. "You're the only family he has. You have a house and a business. I want what's fair."

A man by the hull put down his wrench.

One of the customers lifted a phone.

I stayed where I was.

Hamish folded the rag and tucked it in his back pocket.

"You told me at the funeral you weren't pregnant," he said.

"I was scared."

"You told a delivery room your baby belonged to a man who wasn't the father, and you did it with a straight face, while my brother's watch sat in the tray beside you."

"I didn't have a choice."

"You had two," Hamish said. "You could have told me the truth, or you could have told Dalton. You picked a third."

She looked around the yard.

Nine men and two customers stood looking at her.

Not one of them looked away.

"You don't understand," she said, and her voice cracked. "I had nothing. I'm twenty-six. I work at a dental office. Jeremy was dead, and I was..."

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