Pretty Baby novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Swab
"You said a lot of things," I said. "Most of it was nonsense, the way people talk in the dark."
"Then give me the one that wasn't," Stefan said. "Something I never told anyone. Something my mother couldn't pull from a hotel log."
I looked at the window where the small hand had waved, and then I looked at him.
"You said the chemo took one thing you actually wanted," I said.
"You wanted a kid to teach how to draw a bridge. You said you'd never get to explain how the cables hold."
He didn't breathe.
Then he turned to the intercom and pressed it with his thumb.
"Mother, I'm counting to ten," he said. "Then my driver takes your gate off its hinges."
"Stefan, don't be absurd."
"One."
He got to five before the iron gates shuddered and swung open.
The housekeeper stood at the control box with her hand over her mouth.
We walked up the drive together, past the gardeners, who did not pretend to be working.
Winifred waited in the front hall in cream cashmere with her hands folded.
Mabel sat at the foot of the stairs with a plate of apple slices and Pickle in her lap.
"Lydia!" she said, and half rose, and looked at her grandmother, and sat down again.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Pretty Baby are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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