The Bride Who Read the Contract novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Ninety-Nine Steps
They left the next morning.
Fumika hadn't asked them to go at any particular hour. She had only said they couldn't stay.
Genzo chose ten o'clock, when the worshippers were thickest on the ninety-nine steps.
Fumika understood why when she saw him.
He came out of the family house in a plain grey kimono, carrying one small cloth bundle in his own hands.
No robes. No frock coat. His head bowed.
The worshippers on the steps fell quiet as he passed.
An old woman put her hand to her mouth, the way people do at a funeral.
He was going to walk down those steps, and the newspapers were waiting at the bottom with their cameras to photograph it.
Kinue came out behind him.
She hadn't chosen grey.
She was in her best purple, with every gold ring on her fingers, and two shrine servants behind her carrying a lacquered chest between them.
It was heavy. The servants were sweating.
Fumika stood at the top of the steps with Kaede.
Ibuki stood a little behind them, with Suzuna. He had driven down at dawn the moment the north road opened.
"Kinue," Fumika said. "What's in the chest?"
Kinue stopped two steps down and looked back up at her.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Bride Who Read the Contract are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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