Page 111 of The Auction
I walked into Herb’s study…
Our study…You need to stop thinking of this place as your dad’s prison.
Whatevs.
First instinct was to trash the letter. I didn’t want to read it when I had a hunch I knew what it would say.
Not what he signed up for.
Can’t risk his savings.
Unpredictable outcomes.
All of that was true and a pretty solid reason for leaving a place you weren’t entirely invested in. After all, we’d only been married what…seven months or so?
But I’m sure he made some comment about how the divorce would be handled.
Legally, the land, the house, it was all his. As decreed in Herb’s will. Divorcing him meant it would be up to a judge to determine what I was entitled to. Which was the only reason I hadn’t served him with papers as soon as Herb was in the ground.
I recalled thinking I could break him down.
So stupid…
Did I even know any lawyers in town? I’d have to call one as soon as…
“FUUUUUCKKKK!”
I pushed everything off Herb’s desk, including the lamp that sat on the corner. I heard the crash of glass breaking,but I would just close the door behind me so AP couldn’t get into the room.
I left his stupid envelope where it landed on the carpet. There would be time enough to get to it later.
For now, I was going back to bed.
I shut the study door behind me, scooped up AP, who had been lingering just outside, obviously disturbed by my outburst, and went back to bed.
I stayed in bed for a long time.
TWENTY-SEVEN
JULIETTE
Juliette
In the end,it was Peasy who saved me.
She needed to eat. Her stall needed to be mucked. She needed some exercise. Way more activity than Patch required.
So I got up and did all those things.
After a few days, I took the truck into town for groceries and bought a bunch of boxes of Kraft, some cat food, and a bag of apples and carrots for Peasy.
When I handed over my debit card I had no idea what was going to happen. But I assumed when the bank account ran out of money, something would beep to let me know.
I had the thought to walk over to the bank and see if I could get the ATM to give me a balance on the account so I would know exactly how much money I had left. But that felt like exerting too much energy.
It would run out when it ran out. If he’d left me a horse as a parting gift, he probably left a couple of thousanddollars for me and the animals to eat. At least, that’s what I figured.
After a week, April drove one of her family member’s trucks over to the farm.
