A Happy Family Without Me novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Moving Truck

I did not say a word in front of the children.

I took Poppy's hand, and the girl's whisper followed us down the hall.

"Mommy said," the girl said again, to nobody.

Lorna appeared in the doorway behind me, and her face went smooth.

"Is everything all right?" she said.

"We're going home," I said.

"The cake isn't even cut."

"Save it for the baby."

In the car Poppy sat very straight with her seatbelt in both fists.

"Mom, I'm not going to say anything," she said. "But I heard it."

"I know you did."

"You're not going away."

"I'm not going anywhere," I said. "This is my house, and you're my girl."

She let go of the belt and reached across to put her hand on my arm.

On Sunday, at noon, a rented moving truck turned onto Lindell Street.

It was white, with an orange stripe, and it backed up over my curb.

Garner climbed down from the cab in jeans and a ball cap, grinning at the street.

Lorna sat in the passenger seat, with the boy and the girl in the back of the cab.

A neighbor two doors down came out on her lawn with a rake she wasn't using.

Across the road Torsten stood up from his porch step.

I walked out onto my own porch and stayed at the top of the stairs.

"Morning, Cor," Garner said loudly. "We're here to bring the family home."

"Which family?"

"Mine." He lifted a folded paper out of his back pocket and flapped it. "Ten years married. Half of this house is mine. My lawyer says so."

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