Not His Wife novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Steps

At a quarter to nine on Friday, it was raining on the courthouse steps, and everyone I knew was standing in it.

Bernice had the navy hat on and a clear plastic rain bonnet over the hat.

The man in the bow tie stood two steps below her, with six members of the Builders' Association behind him in slickers.

The kid in the headphones held his phone up with both hands.

At the top by the doors, two county deputies waited with their thumbs in their belts.

The records clerk had called them herself.

Beside Anson stood a woman in a green raincoat, with a flat folder under her arm and her chin up.

She had flown in at midnight from Cleveland.

"You don't have to do this," I told her.

"Yes, I do," she said. "I've been waiting a year to."

I had the frame from my front hall in a grocery bag.

Anson held his black umbrella over the two of us, and for once I let him.

At nine on the dot, a gray car pulled to the curb.

Alyssa got out with a lawyer in a gray suit.

She wore a cream coat and carried a thick envelope.

She walked up the steps.

Down at the bottom, Joyce stood in her church coat with the little girl on her hip.

A judge had signed Reed's order Thursday night, and a deputy had collected the child from the motel at seven.

Reed stood beside his mother with his arms around them both, not looking at anyone.

Alyssa saw them.

Her stride broke for half a step, and then she went on.

"Good morning," she said, softly, to the whole crowd. "I'm sorry you've all gotten wet."

She held up the envelope.

"This is a recorded lien on forty-one Linden Road, signed by Ivy Tolbert in April. I'm filing it today, with an eviction notice."

The lawyer cleared his throat.

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