The 23rd Deletion Bride novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Letters

I read the first email three times before the words held still.

It was dated three days before my father's funeral.

"The funeral was a Tuesday in March," I said. "You sent me the date before it?"

"Twice," Cullen said. "The second one says the service is at eleven at St. Brendan's, and that your father wished you there."

I found it.

It was short, and it ended: Please call me.

I put it down.

My hands had started to shake, and I put them under the blanket.

"Dalton told me about the funeral," I said. "He said my father's lawyers had sent word."

"What word?"

"That the Carrick family didn't want me there."

"Your father's lawyer is me."

"I know that now."

"Linnea." He leaned forward in the chair. "Eight months ago I stood at the back of St. Brendan's for two hours and watched the door."

"I was in my kitchen, in my coat."

"I didn't know that then."

His voice was level, and it cost him something.

"I thought you got every message and chose not to come. I decided you had made your choice, and I let it be."

"You wrote eleven emails," I said.

"And three registered letters to your house. A woman signed for all three."

I closed my eyes.

"Delaney."

"That would be my guess."

I remembered that Tuesday exactly.

I had sat in the kitchen in my black dress with my coat on.

I had waited for someone to call and say it was all right to come.

Dalton had walked past me twice and said, I'm so sorry, babe, they've made it clear.

I had grieved for my father at that kitchen table, alone.

I opened my eyes.

"Read me the last one," I said.

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