The Missing Heir novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Nineteen Days

I did not go back to the ED.

I told Bev to cover my shift.

I stood in front of the portrait for twenty minutes, looking at a man I had been sleeping beside for two weeks.

Then I drove home and sat in my kitchen with the lights off.

He came in at seven.

I heard his key in the lock, his boots on the stairs, and the coat sliding onto the hook.

He stopped in the doorway when he saw me at the table.

He saw my phone beside my hand, and on the screen was a photo of the portrait.

For a long time neither of us said anything.

"You saw it," he said.

"I saw it."

"I was going to tell you tonight."

"When did you remember?"

He didn't answer.

"Micah.

When did you remember?"

"Tuesday."

His voice was very quiet.

"At the pit.

I was scraping a pan under the hot water, and the whole thing came back at once."

"Tuesday."

"Yes."

"You slept in my bed on Tuesday.

You slept in my bed on Wednesday, and you knew."

"I know."

"You let me hold you."

"I know."

I stood up so fast that the chair fell.

"Your mother is in a cardiac unit," I said.

"You looked at her and lied."

"Yes."

"You knew when you said it."

"No.

That was before.

But I knew the next morning."

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