The Seat They Never Saved and the Offer I Finally Took novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: What He Paid For

Connor had stopped acting.

Without the smile, his face looked sharper, and older, and much meaner.

"Connor," Tobias said, very quietly. "Don't."

"Oh, now you want me to stop?"

"You've lost. Take it home."

"I haven't lost anything." Connor pointed a finger down the table. "Everybody wants to know who the villain is tonight. Everybody wants to look at me. Fine. Let's look at him."

The remaining guests had stopped moving.

A waiter had come to the kitchen door with a tray, and stayed there, frozen.

"Lena," Connor said. "The green wool coat. Do you remember it?"

I did.

It was the winter my father died.

I'd stood in a funeral home in a thin black jacket, shivering through four hours of handshakes.

Two weeks later, a box had come to my door, and in it was a green wool coat that fit me perfectly.

Connor had said, I saw you were cold.

I had cried into his shoulder and worn that coat every winter since.

"Yes," I said. "Why?"

"I never picked that coat out."

The room was quiet enough that I heard a candle pop.

"I never picked out the peonies in March, either," Connor said. "Your favorite. Every year. Or the weekend in Door County for your birthday, or the weekly calls to your mother to ask about her hip."

My mouth had gone dry.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying he paid for all of it." His voice cracked, high and vicious. "Three years. He sent me money every month from Rotterdam. He wrote me lists. Her size. Her mother's birthday. What kind of flowers. When to call. I was his errand boy, and I did it, and you kissed me for it."

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