The Mistress in the Room novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Hannah Picks a Side

Evan left at six to launch his boat, and he kissed my forehead in the dark before he went.

I stood in my kitchen at eight with the curtain still drawn over the window and a pot of coffee I didn't want.

The front bell rang twice, the way Hannah always rang it.

She came in with Seth behind her, carrying a cardboard tray of coffees he had clearly been told to carry.

Hannah's eyes were red, and she was holding her phone out in front of her.

"Mom, did you see it?"

"I saw it."

"He wrote that you've lost your mind. Under a video of you in your own kitchen."

"Sit down, sweetheart."

"I don't want to sit."

"Then stand, but listen." I put both hands on the island. "Evan was here last night. He stayed. I took him upstairs to my mother's sewing room."

Seth looked very hard at the coffee tray.

Hannah did not look away.

"I know," she said. "The whole internet knows."

"I'm not going to tell you it was a misunderstanding. I'm not sorry, and I'm not ashamed of it."

"Mom."

"And I want you to hear the rest from me. I am not going back to your father. Not by Christmas, not for your wedding, not for you."

Her mouth shook.

"Not even for me?"

"Especially not for you. I won't have you walk down an aisle watching two people lie at the same table."

Hannah put the phone down on the island very carefully.

Then she crossed the kitchen and wrapped both arms around me, and her whole body let go.

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