In The Storm, My Husband Locked Me Out And Chose Her novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Wait on the Steps

I went out onto the porch in my socks and shut the door behind me.

Eleanor stood at the bottom of the steps in the dusk, with the blanket in both hands.

"You said Sunday," I said.

"I know."

"It's Saturday."

"I've been sitting at the end of the road since two o'clock," she said. "I couldn't make myself wait."

She looked smaller in the plain coat.

Her silver hair had come loose at one side, and she had not put it back.

"I have no lawyer with me," she said. "I have no driver. He is sitting in the car, and he has been told not to move."

"What do you want, Eleanor?"

"To hold her."

She said it flatly.

"I've come to say I'm not here to apologize."

"I didn't think you were."

"I'd do the same again to protect my son. I can't pretend otherwise." Her mouth moved. "But I have lost my chair, and my seat on the board, and most of the people I had lunch with. And I have a granddaughter I've seen through a glass window once, and I would like to hold her."

It was the most honest thing she had ever said to me.

I did not like how much I believed it.

"I'll let you," I said. "On one condition."

"Name it."

"You answer one question. Truthfully, with nobody here to hear it."

"Go on."

"Did you know about the clocks?"

She looked past me at the lit kitchen window.

The porch light buzzed over our heads.

"No," Eleanor said at last. "I didn't know about the clocks. I would like to say that I did not know about any of it."

"But?"

"I knew about the rule. I laughed at the first dinner, when he said it. I laughed at it for years." Her voice was low and rough. "I told my friends that you were a sweet girl who couldn't tell time. I said it at my own table. I have said it to a great many people."

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