Chapter 16: The Study

Constance took Sammy upstairs at ten, to my old bedroom, and sat beside him with her cane across her knees.

Roz went to the front hall to deal with the investigators and Chantal's lawyer.

I went to my father's study and shut the door.

The desk was still there, because the Hayeses had bought the house with the furniture in it.

I sat in his chair and put both hands flat on the leather.

I had cried at his funeral for three hours, and I had believed I was crying for a good man.

I heard the door open behind me.

"Don't turn on the light," I said.

Killian did not turn on the light.

He stood in the dark by the door with his hands empty at his sides.

"Why a copy?" I said. "That was my question in Port Alder, and you gave me half."

"Give me the other half."

"Chantal asked for the bracelet on the first day."

"The real one, the one I had ordered for you in the spring."

"She had seen the drawing in my phone. She said, that's the one I want."

"You gave it to her."

"I gave it to her, and I told the jeweler to make you a copy by the anniversary, because I could not stand in front of you with nothing."

"I meant to tell you the whole of it that night."

"Then you came to the hall wearing the glass copy on your wrist, and I could not say it."

"You could have said it in three years."

"Yes."

"You said thank you at our wedding."

His mouth went tight in the dark.

"I know what I said."

"I thought I was a shield," I said. "I thought you married me so nobody would ask why a Hayes paid a Peabody's debts."

"I thought you kept me to look good."

"Mireille."

"Don't. I'm telling you what I believed, and I want you to hear what it was like."

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