His Cousin Was His Real Wife, So I Took My Father's Name Back novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Question

Simon drove up Wren Hill faster than I had ever seen him drive.

The detective's car came up the drive behind us with two officers inside.

The housekeeper met us in the hall, wringing a dish towel.

"I couldn't stop him," she said. "He said he'd been waiting for her for twenty-four years."

The sunroom door stood a hand's width open.

I put my fingers on Simon's arm, and we stopped to listen.

"You're not eating," Joan was saying, in the voice I knew from every Sunday. "You've got to eat something, Conrad. It's only chicken."

"I'm not hungry, Joan."

"You never were, that year. I used to bring you soup."

"You did."

"I was good to that house."

"You stole from my wife while she was dying," Conrad said. His voice had no heat in it. "I let you go and I paid you through the month, because I thought she shouldn't have a scene."

"That was kind."

"It was a mistake. It's the one I'll carry out of this world."

A chair creaked.

"I took a child out of a house where nobody was watching her," Joan said. "A drunk father and a dying mother and a boy on a wall."

"I wasn't drunk by noon."

"Wasn't it a kindness? She had a good life."

"She did," Conrad said. "I'm told the Mackeys were good people. I'm grateful to them. I'll be grateful to them until I die."

He stopped, and I heard the oxygen hiss.

"I have one question for you, and it's the only reason I asked you in."

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend