After the Divorce, I Became His First Love's Sister-in-Law novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Yellow Cardigan

Clarissa did not speak until the driver had pulled out of the Marchand gate.

She handed me a dry wool blanket from the seat, and I wrapped it around my bare feet.

"I stood in the corridor outside that lounge every night for six weeks," she said.

She said it to the window.

"My son was blind and frightened, and I sat in his room all day and I could not help him. Then at nine the music started, and he stopped being frightened."

"I know," I said. "I was the one playing."

"I know you were."

I turned my head.

"I saw you," Clarissa said. "A thin girl in a yellow cardigan with her hair tied back. You came every night and left at ten, and you never looked at anyone."

"You never came in."

"I couldn't. If I came in, I would have had to thank you, and then Colin would have asked me who you were." She pressed her lips together. "And I wanted to keep you for him. I was selfish."

I said nothing.

She opened her handbag and took out a small square of folded paper, soft at the creases from being handled.

"I have carried this for nine years," she said. "Read it."

I unfolded it under the dome light.

The handwriting was faint and slanted, in blue ink, and I knew it before I read a word.

My mother's hand.

Please tell the boy in Room 14 that my daughter plays for him. She won't say so, she plays for herself. But she was alone downstairs, and now she isn't. Don't let her stop. From a mother upstairs.

I read it twice.

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend