A Love Lost to the Years novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Set

Kenneth was sitting on the workshop floor with his back against the drafting table when Sonya came in at seven with two breakfast sandwiches.

He had been there since four.

He had not turned on the stove.

"You called me at four in the morning and said 'I'm at the shop,'" Sonya said, "and then you hung up."

"I didn't want to wake you."

"I was at work, you moron. It's my night shift."

She set a sandwich on his knee and sat on an upturned bucket.

"Is she dead?"

"No."

"Are you dead?"

"I don't think so."

"Then start from the top."

He told her.

He told it flat and in order.

The mill, the stamp, the desk, the plan, the ring on the table.

Sonya stopped chewing around the part about the plan.

When he finished, she put the sandwich down.

"Where's the ring?" Sonya said.

"On her drafting table."

"You just left it there."

"Yes."

"And she let you walk out."

"She said my name once. Then she let me go."

"Ken." Sonya pressed her fingertips against her eyes. "I'm furious on your behalf. I am."

"But?"

"But a woman out to ruin you, seven years in, still has you putting up shelves in her lounge. That's a strange kind of revenge."

"She lied the whole time."

"She did, and I'm not defending it." Sonya dropped her hands.

"The lie is one thing and the seven years is another. You're going to have to look at both."

He looked at the ceiling.

"I drew it, Sonya."

"You drew what?"

"The mill. The east wall. Nine arched windows, labeled for demolition. I thought it was just some old warehouse."

"You were twenty-five."

"That's what she said."

"She said that?"

"She said she knows I didn't know."

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