The Second Life of the Malicious Colonel's Daughter novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Every Day Since You Came

I did not touch the notebook.

I looked at it, black and plain on the counter between us, and I looked at the man who had put it there.

"Do whatever you want with it," he said again. "I'm done being careful."

"You just lost your badge."

"I know."

"You lost it in front of him."

"I know that too."

"Why?"

"Because you shook your head."

I stared at him.

"In the board room," he said. "I'd rather lose the badge than hand over the pictures."

"You could have kept your badge."

"I could have kept it and lost you."

"You hadn't lost me."

"Hadn't I?" He said it softly. "I've been waiting for the next test since the day I came."

The shop was still.

I had flipped the sign to CLOSED a quarter hour ago, and the light through the glass was going gray.

"You knew," I said.

"Not at first. By the drawer I knew."

"You said nothing."

"You didn't want me to say anything. You wanted to see what I'd do."

"I..."

"It's all right." He met my eyes. "I'd have done the same."

My throat was tight.

I had planned a hundred ways to tell him, and in none of them had he said it first.

"Every day since you came," I said.

"I know."

"I was waiting to see if you would lie, or run, or sell me."

"Why?"

"Because I was engaged once."

He didn't move.

"He was a captain in my brigade. When the trial started, he said he was with me, in front of everyone."

My voice stayed flat.

"The day they called him as a witness, he said he had never heard me say any of it."

"I learned something that day. People will say they're on your side right up until it costs them."

"Jessamine."

"So I made it cost. Every day, a little more. I wanted to know exactly where you'd stop."

"And now?"

"You didn't stop."

I put my hand inside my vest and found the folded square where I had kept it against the lining for two days.

I took it out and laid it on the counter beside his notebook.

"What is that?"

"The carbon from my father's lawyer."

"Of what?"

"The sheets as they first came from Merrow. The stamp says the eighth of November, nine days before the trucks were serviced."

He opened it with careful fingers.

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