He Let Her Rip Our License, So I Married Another Man novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Letter

Benedict's POV

My grandmother held the envelope in both hands and would not open it.

"My eyes aren't what they were," she said. "And I'd like to hear his voice. Hallie reads well."

Hallie sat on the edge of the bed.

She slit the envelope with her thumbnail.

The paper inside was thin and blue, covered in my grandmother's friend's shaking capitals.

"Dear Nell," Hallie read.

Her voice was steady, and I listened to it the way I had listened to a voicemail once, with my eyes shut.

"I am writing this at the kitchen table while I can still remember what I want to say. The doctors have a word for what is happening to me. I won't use it. I can feel the days going.

"You will want to know about the dinner. I took your note at my door that evening. I put it in my coat pocket and sat down to read the paper, and then I did not know where the note was, or why I had come in.

"I found it a month later in the lining. By then Hallie was engaged to a boy who made her laugh in company. She looked happy. I told myself, who am I to say a word?

"I was wrong, Nell. I watched that boy for a year. He laughs at her, and she thanks him. I have a rule against interfering, and I'd break it if I could still hold a thought for more than an hour."

My grandmother's mouth shook.

Hallie stopped reading.

"Go on," my grandmother said.

"I have hidden a note behind my watch for her. It says to call your grandson. If she opens it, it means she needs someone, and I want it to be him.

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