“Matilda,” he said.
“Arthur Shaw has asked for your hand in marriage.”
Matilda’s heart dropped. “But… I don’t know him.”
“He’s a good man,” Walter insisted.
“He’ll take care of you. And us.”
Her mother’s swollen eyes said everything.
“Daddy,” Matilda whispered, her voice breaking, “how much?”
Walter replied: “Two thousand dollars.”
Enough to save them all.
Her question came out in a breathless, devastated whisper:
“Are you selling me?”
His silence was the answer.
Nine days later, wearing a wedding dress Arthur paid for, Matilda walked down the aisle as though walking to her own burial. Her first kiss occured at the altar, in front of strangers. That night, she entered Arthur’s home with shaking hands.
And behind the closed bedroom door, Arthur spoke first.
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