They Left Me Out of the Family Pack Chat, So I Left Them Out of My Future novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Spare Key

Ewan was gone when I woke up, with a note on the table that said "Opening the store. Sorry. Eat something."

I ate toast standing at the counter and got dressed for my shift.

At 6:40 a key slid into my front door.

I watched it turn from the hallway.

The lock gave, and the door swung in four inches and stopped dead against Quinn's chain.

"Imogen?" My mother's voice came through the gap, small and wet. "Sweetheart, it's Mom. The door is stuck."

"It isn't stuck."

"Can you open it? I brought coffee cake."

I stepped up to the gap.

She stood on my landing in her good camel coat with a foil-covered pan against her chest and a tissue in her sleeve.

Her eyes were already red.

"I'm worried sick about you," she said. "You left the dinner so upset, and your father didn't sleep. Roz said you looked pale. I thought I'd make sure you were all right."

"I'm fine, Mom."

"Then why is there a chain?"

"Because someone has a key."

Her face crumpled, right on cue.

"Imogen. I'm your mother."

"Then ring the bell."

"I did that for years. You never answered."

"I was at work."

"Then I'd leave a note." Her voice trembled. "I only want to help. Let me in. You shouldn't be alone when you're like this."

"Like what?"

She didn't say it.

She only pressed the tissue to her mouth and looked at me with big, kind, terrible eyes.

I thought of the word "breakdown" in my father's typing.

I thought of the aunt I didn't have.

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