They Sold Me, Then My Dead Mother Came to Take Me Home novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: Friday Dinner
"I know what he did that night," I said.
My father blinked.
"He stood on the porch with his hands in his pockets," I said, "and watched two men carry me up the steps."
The yard was silent.
Jonas had not moved, and he did not look away from me.
"That is all he did," I said. "I've known it for seven years, Dad. You don't get to hand it back to me as news."
My father opened his mouth and closed it.
I had thought that naming it in front of everyone would feel like a win.
It did not feel like a win.
It hurt more than I had expected, and I could see it hurt Jonas, and I did not take it back.
"Gentlemen," the deputy said. "I think we're finished here."
Corbin pulled his folder against his chest and walked to the sedan without a word.
My father went more slowly.
At the open car door he turned back.
"Your mother is expecting you for dinner Friday at seven," he said. "Come to the house, Mara. Hear her out. If you won't, then Monday, we do this in front of a judge."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a father asking," he said, and I could not tell if he believed it.
The cars went down the road.
The ranch hands drifted off to the barns one by one, none of them talking, and the old one stopped beside me and patted the step twice with his open hand before he went.
Jonas stayed in the yard.
I sat down on the top step because my legs gave me no choice.
He picked up my cane from the gravel and carried it over, and then he held it out, handle first, without a word.
"Thank you," I said.
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