“Leaving for where?”
He couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Marlene found someone willing to marry you.”

The Story Continues After Part 2

For a moment I thought I had misheard him.

Somewhere below us the dishwasher clicked through its final cycle.

Dad stood in the doorway as though a household appliance might rescue him from finishing the conversation.

“Willing?” I repeated.

“You make it sound as if I’m an unwanted piece of furniture.”

“Tessa, please.

Your stepmother thinks a fresh start might do you good.”

“A fresh start is something a person chooses.

Who is this man?”

He rubbed his forehead.

“Silas Rowe.

Works at a lumberyard.

Lives outside town.

Apparently he’s decent.”

“Then why would a decent man agree to a marriage arranged by people trying to humiliate me?”

Dad had no answer.

Instead he set a thin envelope on my dresser.

Inside was a courthouse appointment confirmation and a typed statement that my position at Langford Textiles would end immediately upon marriage.