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Chapters (47)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraphs
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. Part Two
  25. EIGHTEEN
  26. NINETEEN
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. THIRTY
  38. THIRTY-ONE
  39. THIRTY-TWO
  40. THIRTY-THREE
  41. THIRTY-FOUR
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. Acknowledgments
  46. About the Author
  47. Newsletter Sign-up

“You can start a business,” Anthony said. “You can be your own man. All you have to do is say the kid is yours—that’s it. This is the easiest money that’ll ever come your way. Go out West or something. Go to college. See the world. You’re eighteen now. An adult. Nobody is going to chase after you. You’re free to make your own life.”

Michael knew it should be easy to sign his name, but his hand wouldn’t move. He was signing the last two years of his life away, signing away Ed and Connie, Poppy and Ann, his life in Milwaukee. Cape Cod. Everything that mattered to him. Signing his name was more like erasing it.

“Like I said, it’ll look like it’s coming from you.”

“Where are her parents going to think I got that much money?”

“Their only concern is that their daughter is taken care of. Look, my life is complicated, Michael. Complicated in ways you wouldn’t understand. Your life, on the other hand, is simple. You can just tell one little lie, pocket a chunk of money, leave a family you were never really a part of, and the girl who never loved you back the way you wanted her to. Ann did a lot for you, I get it. But now her future is in your hands. Everyone will think you’re the father anyway. Do the right thing.”

Anthony was right: everyone would think Michael was the father. Everyone. But Ann—she really came up with this plan? She really loved this guy? Slept with him again and again? When she’d come to his bed that summer, was she upset because he wouldn’t leave Maureen? He might not have believed what Anthony told him if he hadn’t heard the coldness in her voice that morning, if she hadn’t been so distant for the past few months. And now she was willing to use Michael to help Anthony? Couldn’t she see what Anthony was? She loved this sack of shit? Then again, his mother had loved Marcus. He treated her terribly and still she’d loved him.

“I hate you,” Michael said. He looked Anthony right in the eye.

“I get that. I’d hate me too if I were you. Just sign.”

And that’s what Michael did. He signed quickly, wherever he was told, before he could change his mind. And just like that, he became nobody.