He Begged Me to Forgive Her, Then Lost Everything novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Greenwood Lake
On the last Sunday in May, a dozen people ate dinner on Tiernan's porch with a table built from two sawhorses and a door.
Hattie had brought a cake in the shape of a sheet pan, and was explaining it to anyone who held still.
"It's a tribute," she said. "I put a little frosting Lowry on the corner and I smashed him."
"That's a man's face?" asked the caterer, squinting.
"It's a stain. Same thing."
The caterer worked in the boat shop now, sanding hulls on weekdays.
He was paid every Friday by a man who had never once mentioned breach of contract.
He had grown two inches in his own posture since March.
Three nurses from my unit had come straight off a day shift in their sneakers.
The nurse manager from the board sat at the far end beside the old man with the cast.
He had a new cast, from a different accident, and he was telling everyone about it.
The old butler had arrived at four with a pie and an apron.
"I find I'm underfoot at home," he said, and put himself in charge of the grill.
Tiernan ran the fish.
I sat in the middle of the table in my own cardigan.
My grandmother's brooch was pinned over my heart, and my elbows were on the door.
"I have news," the butler said, over the smoke, and nobody could tell if he was smiling.
"Lowry House sold on Thursday. A couple from Connecticut, retired, with grandchildren."
"They have already hired a firm to take out the grand staircase."
The table went quiet.
"Entirely?" Hattie asked.
"Every step. They say they don't like how it looks."
Hattie put down her fork.
"I'm going to need a minute."
"Take two," said the old man with the cast.
Somebody laughed, and then everyone was laughing, in the loud, helpless, wet way that comes after a long winter.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of He Begged Me to Forgive Her, Then Lost Everything are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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