A Mother Adored: From Office Outcast to CEO's Beloved novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Barn
I pulled on jeans and my old barn coat and went down the stairs in my socks.
Nolan was behind me before I reached the kitchen, dressed, with his shoes in his hand.
"He said don't bring you," I whispered.
"Then I'll stand at the door," he said.
"I won't come in unless you say."
I looked at him, and I nodded.
The night smelled of cut hay and cold dirt.
The barn doors stood open a foot, and orange light shook on the gravel.
I smelled smoke before I reached them.
Inside, my father stood over a rusted oil drum with a flashlight in his teeth.
Flames climbed out of the drum, and he was feeding it paper from a green metal box.
I knew that box.
My mother kept it on the high shelf in the tack room, with her ribbons, her birth certificate and her will.
"Dad!"
He jerked, and the flashlight fell.
"Go back to bed, Hattie."
"What are you burning?"
"Trash," he said.
"Old trash that should have gone years ago."
I ran across the straw and looked into the drum.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of A Mother Adored: From Office Outcast to CEO's Beloved are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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