Five Years of Marriage to Mr. Bradford novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Leah's POV: Same Mouth

Leah's POV

By ten o'clock the article had been shared four hundred thousand times.

Fiona read me the comments off her laptop standing up, with her jaw tight.

"'Rich man kills boy, marries sister.' 'Imagine marrying the man who left your brother in the road.' Oh, they've found your toast, there's a picture of you holding the glass." She shut the lid. "I'll not read you any more."

"Read me the part about the card."

"There's no part about the card."

"Of course there isn't."

I sat with my hands around a mug I had not drunk from, in my cardigan, in my own kitchen, and I felt entirely calm.

It was a flat, cold calm, and I did not trust it.

The article called Leonard the driver, and said a heartbroken friend had kept his secret out of love.

It quoted a source close to the family, who said that she had been sick with guilt for seven years.

It did not say her name.

It did not have to.

My phone rang non-stop in the first hour.

The ninth call was my cousin in Worcester.

"Leah. Leah, there are two men on my porch with cameras."

"Don't open the door."

"I'm not an idiot. I'm sitting on the stairs." She was crying. "Is it true? Did he do it? Did you know?"

"I didn't know."

"Danny's friends are all messaging me. Danny's old drummer wants to drive to Boston and break his windows."

"Tell him to stay home."

"Leah, what do I tell them?"

I looked at the table, at the wallet and the empty card sleeve, and at the phone with its red recording light still glowing in the corner of the screen.

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