Four Hundred Guests Watched Him Cheat, So I Took Everything He Had novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: On the Landing
I opened the door with my phone in my hand and the red dot already on.
"Good morning, Harlan," I said. "You're live."
He stood on the landing in a camel coat with his hands open in front of him.
He had shaved, and he looked rested, and he smiled.
He had not expected the phone.
"Margo," he said. "Put that down. Let's be a family."
"I'm in the middle of a broadcast."
"How many people are watching?"
"Four hundred and twelve," I said, which was true.
The number went up as I said it.
He did not stop smiling, but the smile changed shape.
Down the stairwell, a door opened and a woman in a bathrobe leaned out with a small dog under one arm.
She looked at Harlan, at me, and at the phone, and she folded her free arm and stayed where she was.
"I came to bring you home," Harlan said, very warm. "You've had a terrible shock. I understand that. Your mother has been confused for months, and I think you've been drawn into it."
"You said the same thing to the doctor on the dock."
"I said what I believed."
"The doctor said he hadn't documented anything."
Harlan's eyes flicked down to the phone and away.
"Let's step inside," he said.
"No."
"Margo."
"You can say it here, in front of everyone."
He drew a long breath through his nose.
"Very well," he said, and the warmth went out of his voice. "Then let me say it plainly. I paid for the hospital room. I paid for your mother's care. I paid for the house you grew up in, and for the roof over your head when you were twelve."
"You paid for a hospital bed my mother couldn't leave."
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