I Funded Their Empire for Years, So They Sent Me the Bill novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Christmas in Dalkey
I looked up at the old sign over the door, gold letters on black, a little flaked at the edges.
"Fitzsimons & Sons," I said.
Cian turned his head and stared at me.
"After all that?"
"They charged me for that name. I've paid for it." I put the keys in my coat pocket. "I'm keeping it."
He laughed so loud a woman on the pavement jumped.
On Christmas Eve the kitchen in Dalkey smelled of goose fat and oranges and burnt something.
My mother's table stood where it had always stood, in the middle of the floor, with its burn mark and its drawer that never shut.
The van had brought it back on a Friday, as promised. Nobody had come with it.
The marble island had gone out the side gate in pieces. I hadn't watched.
Cian was at the cooker in an apron of Ottoline's with lemons on it.
He was arguing with a goose.
"It's meant to be brown," he said. "Why is it black on one side?"
"Because you put that side nearest the flame."
"There's a nearest side? Nobody told me there was a nearest side."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of I Funded Their Empire for Years, So They Sent Me the Bill are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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