Chapter 16: For Sale

Dustin did not come to my apartment again, and he did not answer Ross's calls.

On Tuesday morning Ross and I used the brass key.

We let ourselves in through the back door at eight, with Rafe waiting in the truck at the end of Linden Road.

The kitchen was exactly as I remembered it.

The same yellow curtains hung at the window, and the same chipped blue bowl sat on the sill.

The linoleum by the stove was worn pale in a long oval.

I stood and looked at the oval for a while.

"She said he was right there," Ross said, very low.

"I know."

"I eat my cereal here. I have eaten my cereal here for three years."

"Ross."

"I'm going to throw up."

He didn't.

He opened the cupboard and took out two mugs instead, and we drank bad coffee standing up with our backs against the counter.

At nine the front door opened.

Dustin walked in, with a woman behind him in a navy blazer carrying a clipboard and a lockbox.

He stopped in the hall when he saw us in the kitchen doorway.

"What are you doing in this house?" he said.

"Living here, mostly," said Ross. "Since you never listened to the recording."

"I told you what that was."

"You told me it was fake."

"It's a trick, Ross. She's grieving, and she said things she didn't mean, and somebody cut it."

"Nobody cut it. I held the phone."

"Then you were set up."

"By who?" Ross's voice cracked upward. "By Victoria, who's telling me she let Dad die? Is she setting me up to hear it?"

The woman in the blazer took half a step back toward the door.

Dustin didn't look at her.

"This is the estate's house, and I am the trustee," he said. "I have decided to sell it. You have until Friday to take your things out."

"Friday."

"You can stay with me. Or you can stay with her." He didn't use my name. "But you will not stay here and sit in judgment."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fiancé and Brothers Left Me at the Altar for My Adopted Sister from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.