My Husband Bought His Mistress Our Downstairs Apartment novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Dusty Ring

Odette's garden was behind the townhouse, a narrow square of stone and wet roses.

She sat on an iron bench in her coat, with her pearls under the collar.

She did not get up when I came out.

"Sit, Linnea."

I sat.

She looked at the ring on my hand for some time.

"Seven years ago I took that ring out of my safe," she said. "I took it to Dexter and told him it was for the girl he wanted to marry."

My stomach turned over.

"He said it was dusty," she said. "He said you deserved something people could see from across a room."

"The three carats."

"I let him buy them." Her mouth was a thin line. "That same week, I found Quinton in the study at midnight with the lights off. He asked me if I had ever made a mistake that couldn't be undone."

"What did you say?"

"I said I had made none." She turned her face to the wall. "I knew then that he cared for you. I did not ask. Dexter was easier, and I loved the easier son."

"Odette."

"I put Quinton's mother's ring back in the safe and I let you walk down the aisle with the wrong one."

Her voice broke on the last word, and she let it.

I did not know what to do with my hands.

So I took hers.

They were cold, and they gripped me hard.

"When he told me he was giving the ring to a fiancée, I nearly fell down the stairs," she said. "I prayed it was you."

"It's complicated."

"I'm sure it is. I intend to help."

She lifted her head.

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