He Hits You? Suck It Up So I Locked Them in With My Abusive Husband novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Birthday Reunion

Jean's POV

I went back to the same dining room on Sunday at six o'clock, with a drive in my pocket and a patrol car idling at the curb.

The prosecutor had agreed to the patrol car.

She had also agreed that a copy of the vault audio belonged to the woman charged with eight counts, because it was the defense's evidence.

She had not agreed to my plan.

She had said, "I can't tell you not to attend a dinner."

Nate walked in behind me and Lucy walked in behind him.

The long table had been set for forty.

The cake from the first birthday had been replaced by a new one, three tiers, with sugar roses.

Diane sat at the head in a cream silk blouse, and she watched me come through the door with her hands folded.

The uncle was there, and the aunt, the two cousins, the pastor, the friend.

The rest were aunts and second cousins and old friends of Diane's late husband, men in blazers and women with their pearls out.

The talk at the table stopped one chair at a time.

"Jean, sweetheart," Diane said, in her old gentle voice. "You came."

"I did."

"Conway's upstairs resting. It's been a hard week for him. Sit down and have some cake, and we'll let everyone forget it."

"I'd rather give a toast."

She smiled.

"A toast. Of course. How lovely."

The table relaxed a little.

I walked to the sideboard.

The house had a speaker system with a panel on the wall and an app on a phone, and Conway had put my phone on its account the year we married, in case I should want music while I cooked.

Nobody had ever taken me off it.

I opened the app and chose the whole house.

"To Diane Slocumb," I said. "On her birthday."

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