Riot novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Six Months

I took the bus to the tower with my phone in my fist and the news still on the screen.

The lobby was nearly empty at seven.

The woman at the front desk looked up, and she did not ask my name.

"He's in the penthouse, Ms. Merrow," she said. "He told us you'd come."

The elevator door was open before I reached it.

Rhys's door was open too.

He stood in the kitchen in a gray T-shirt and old jeans, with bare feet and no phone in his hand.

A mug sat on the marble island, steaming.

I smelled ginger.

"That's mine," I said. "That's what I drink at three in the morning."

"Bex told me."

"Bex hates you."

"She wrote it on a napkin, and she underlined it."

I put the phone on the counter, face up, with the statement still showing.

"You quit your company."

"For six months. The chief financial officer has the chair. The board voted nine to one, and my uncle cast the one."

"Why?"

"So I could be where you are."

"For the baby."

"No," he said.

He came around the island and stopped an arm's length away.

"You said I forget there's a person between me and her. You were right."

"Rhys..."

"Let me show you how wrong I was."

"Rhys..."

"Your left foot swells by noon. You put it up on the flour bin when you think nobody's looking."

My breath caught.

"You hum when you knead. The same four notes, over and over. I've been trying to place them for a month."

"It's a lullaby my aunt sang."

"You wake at three because you think she's stopped moving. You lie there with your hand on her until she kicks."

He was not done.

"You lean on the oven door when your back hurts, so you won't have to ask me to take the sack."

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