Chapter 20: Sign It for Alexis

By six o'clock there were forty-one cars on the street in Quincy.

Maeve counted every one of them from the passenger seat of Niall's truck.

"You don't have to go in," Niall said.

"Yes, I do."

In the back seat her father sat with a blanket over his knees.

He had been foggy since the morning.

He had asked twice whether the car was moving, and once whether Maeve had eaten.

He did not seem to know where they were going.

Niall lifted the red toolbox out of the truck bed, and Maeve helped her father to the curb.

"Whose house is that?" he asked.

"Ours, Dad."

"It's very bright."

Every window was lit, and a banner hung across the front one.

The door opened before they reached the porch.

Her mother stood in the hall in a navy dress and her pearl earrings.

She had plainly been waiting at the window all day.

She took in the toolbox in Niall's hand, the grey jacket on her husband's shoulders and the daughter holding his arm.

She smiled.

"Everyone is here," she said. "Come in, darling. Look who's come home."

The front room was full.

Maeve knew them all, and she watched them see her.

There were aunts in good cardigans, and cousins she had not seen since a christening, and an uncle with a red face.

A priest in his collar stood by the piano with a plate of cold cuts.

The talking dropped as she came in.

An aunt crossed the room and took her father's other arm.

"How could you do it, Maeve?" she said in a low voice. "To your own mother?"

"Ask Mom what she did," Maeve said, "and then ask me."

"She told us."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Sister Stole My Husband from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.