He Sent Me Overseas to Marry Her, I'm Staying Overseas to Never See Him Again novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Reports

Pierce's car pulled away down the cobbles.

Oliver stayed at the gate with his back to us.

He stood there so long that Peggy let go of my arm.

She went to the kitchen and put the kettle on, because that was what Peggy did when the world ended.

I waited in the doorway.

Finally he turned around.

He didn't look at me.

He looked at the ground in front of my feet.

"Kitchen," he said. "Please."

We sat at Peggy's little table under the yellow light.

Zoe came and stood in the kitchen doorway with her arms folded, and nobody told her to go.

Peggy put a mug in front of each of us and stayed by the stove.

Oliver held his mug in both hands and didn't drink from it.

"The week before you came," he said, "he rang me. Said they were sending someone to run London. Said she might need watching."

"Watching."

"He said you were brilliant but emotional. That you'd been under strain." His thumb moved on the mug. "He said he'd pay a retention bonus if I let him know how you were getting on. Weekly. Twenty thousand."

Peggy turned around from the stove.

"Oliver."

"I know, Gran."

"You never said."

"I know." He looked at me for the first time. "The crew hadn't had a rise in three years. Two of the bench lads were behind on rent. I thought, she's one of his, she'll shut us anyway. Might as well take his money first."

"So you took it."

"I took it."

"And you wrote to him about me."

"Twice."

The kettle was ticking as it cooled.

"What did you say?"

"The first week, I said you'd turned up and Gran gave you a needle." His mouth twisted. "The second week, I said you'd routed the work back and told him no on the call. He knew that already. He was on the call."

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