Chapter 10: The Booking

Cillian's POV

I sat Willa's mother down in the kitchen of the main house with a towel and a mug of tea.

Then I stood by the sink, because I couldn't think where else to be.

Willa had gone up to the cottage.

She had looked at her mother once across the porch and said, "I'll hear whatever you have to say in the morning."

Then she had left, and her mother had cried quietly while I found the kettle.

"You're very kind," Mrs. Hartnell said. "You didn't have to let me in."

"It's raining."

"It was raining when I got in the car, too. I didn't even take an umbrella."

I set the mug in front of her.

She held it with both hands.

"I didn't mean for it to go like this," she said. "Do you understand? I never meant her any harm."

"I believe that."

"It started small. When Mara came, she had nothing. I thought, give her something to look forward to. A surprise on Fridays. A game."

She turned the mug in her hands.

"Nobody in our house says the hard thing out loud, Cillian. I started that. I'm the one who taught them."

I didn't answer.

I was thinking about March, and the call I should have made in May.

"You've gone quiet," Mrs. Hartnell said.

"I'm thinking."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Guess Who Didn't Show Up to My Wedding from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.