He Stole My Fiancée, So I Took His Wife and His Company novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Pearls
My mother came home from St. Luke's on a Thursday, in a wheelchair she hated.
She had a pillow strapped to her chest to protect the stitches.
"I can walk," she told the orderly.
"Ma'am, hospital policy."
"I've been walking since I was one."
Hazel pushed the chair herself.
My mother let her.
That told me everything I needed to know about how it was going to go.
She had a first-floor apartment in a quiet building on Humboldt, with a green door and a porch swing.
I had spent two days scrubbing it, and Hazel had spent one, quietly, buying flowers and a ridiculous amount of soup.
My mother looked at the soup shelf in the fridge.
"You got the good broth," she said.
"The woman at the deli said it was the good one."
"She was right."
She sat down in the armchair by the window, and Hazel tucked the blanket over her knees.
"I'm going to tell you something," my mother said. "And then we are not going to discuss it, because I'm tired and I don't like crying in front of people."
"Mom."
"Hush, you." She looked at Hazel. "Nobody has ever paid for anything for me in my life, honey. Not his father, God rest him, and not the state. I was ashamed, laying in that bed, that it was you."
"I wanted to," Hazel said.
"I know you did. That's why I'm saying thank you and not something nasty."
Hazel laughed and pressed the back of her wrist to her eye.
I stood in the kitchen doorway with a dish towel and did not trust my voice.
The dinner was soup and grilled cheese, with the pearls in a small velvet box beside the salt.
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