Excluded and Uninvited novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: No, Brandy

Caleb's POV

Brandy was wearing the gray coat I had bought her for Christmas.

It was buttoned wrong, up to her chin.

She stood on the far side of the chain and did not smile.

She looked, for the first time since the alley, like nobody was filming her.

"Don't open it," Katja said quietly beside me.

"I won't."

"I'll be on the porch."

"You don't have to go."

"I know. I'm going anyway, so she can say it to you." She squeezed my wrist. "Shout if you need me."

She walked back up the drive without looking at Brandy once.

Brandy watched her go.

"She's pretty," she said.

"Why are you here?"

"Because there's nowhere else." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Cal, I need you to listen to me for one minute without your sister in the room."

"One minute."

"The baby isn't yours."

I waited.

She seemed to expect a reaction, and when she didn't get one her eyes dropped to the gravel.

"I know you knew," she said. "I saw your face on the sidewalk. It's Greg's. It was always Greg's."

"I know."

"He doesn't answer. Since the diner he doesn't answer. I called him forty times." She wiped her nose with her sleeve. "His assistant says I'm a liability. A liability, Cal. I wrote half his scripts."

The wind moved the pines.

I stood very still and let her say it.

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