Chapter 3

Jarvis didn't sign.

He threw the agreement back onto the table.

"Judy James, I don't care what kind of relationship you had with Elijah Stephens over the past three years."

"Come back to Capital City with me now, and I'll let it go."

Elijah let out a laugh.

Jarvis looked over.

"My wife and I are talking. It's not an outsider's place to butt in."

I pushed the agreement back.

"First, you and I stopped being husband and wife a long time ago."

"Second, Elijah is not an outsider."

Jarvis's eyes went cold.

"Say that again?"

"He is not an outsider."

Adela's tears came fast.

"Judy, are you deliberately trying to provoke Jarvis? You know perfectly well that he hasn't forgotten you in all three years."

I almost laughed out loud.

He hasn't forgotten me?

His so-called not forgetting was taking Adela to watch fireworks every year on the anniversary of my death, burning my belongings as offerings for her, and signing my grandmother's land over into her name.

Hearing that, Jarvis felt a pang.

"Judy James, you can hate me, but don't degrade yourself."

I looked at him and felt nothing but how absurd it all was.

"You sent your wife to a women's virtue academy, used her land to keep another woman, and burned her grandmother's ring as an offering."

"And you're still talking to me about being clean?"

Jarvis's throat worked.

After a moment, he said, "Sending you in back then was rash of me."

"But if you hadn't gone after Adela again and again, I never would have done it."

It was supposed to sound like an explanation.

But every single word left me agitated.

I asked, "Have you ever thought about why I went after her?"

Adela sobbed, "I really only saw him as an older brother."

I threw the transfer records in her face.

"An older brother gives you money, gives you land, and goes with you to prenatal checkups too?"

At the words "prenatal checkups," it was Jarvis whose face changed.

Adela bent down to pick them up.

I picked one up for her and held it out in front of Jarvis.

"Harbor Grace Maternity Hospital, March 18th, three years ago."

"Want me to read out the diagnosis for you?"

Adela rushed over to snatch it, but someone stopped her.

Jarvis grabbed the form, and once he saw what was on it, his voice changed.

"You were pregnant?"

Adela went pale.

"Jarvis, it was a misdiagnosis."

"A misdiagnosis?"

I opened my phone and played the video.

On the screen, Adela walked into the obstetrics ward arm in arm with Jarvis.

The nurse asked, "Is the baby's father going to sign?"

Adela said with a smile, "He's busy, I'll take care of it."

The video stopped.

Jarvis stared at the screen.

"Whose child was it?"

Adela went pale.

"There was no child, there really wasn't."

Jarvis turned to look at me.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

I put my phone away.

"No rush."

"Tomorrow. The James ancestral home."

"Everything you want to know, I'll show you all of it."

As I reached the door, Jarvis spoke.

"Judy James, don't push me."

"The James ancestral home is still in my name. One word from me and I can have it torn down."

I stopped.

I turned around and looked at him.

"Tear it down, then."

"As it happens, buried under the crabapple tree is the very thing you're most afraid to face."

Jarvis's expression changed.

"What do you mean?"

I didn't answer.

I only took Elijah's arm and walked out into the Harbor Isle night.

Behind me, Adela cried out, "Jarvis, she's lying to you. She just wants you to feel sorry for her."

Jarvis said nothing.

Because he remembered that three years ago, in the last call I made to him before I disappeared, I had also cried and said,

"Jarvis, don't let them touch the crabapple tree."