Chapter 16: The Night Shift

Julien Aubrac stepped between Margaux and the driver before he knew he had moved.

"Give me that," he said.

"It is addressed to Madame Villard," said the driver.

Margaux held out her hand, and Julien lowered his.

She turned the cream envelope over once and did not open it.

"Tell Monsieur Marceau that the next time he sends a man to my friend's door," she said, "I send this to the newspapers with the stamp still on it."

She pushed it back into the driver's chest.

The driver took a step back and looked at Julien.

Julien looked at him until he went down the stairs.

His phone began to ring in his pocket.

He knew the ring.

It was the housekeeper, and she never called after nine.

"Monsieur," she said, and her voice was thin. "It's Madame. She fell in the garden room. She won't let me call the ambulance."

"Is she breathing?"

"Yes. But her lips are blue."

Julien had the box in his arms and the phone at his ear, and he could not think where to put either.

Margaux took the box from him and set it inside Lise's door.

"I'll get my needles," she said.

"You don't have to."

"Julien. Where is your car?"

They crossed the city fast, through every light that would let them.

Neither of them spoke.

She held her case of needles in her lap with both hands.

His grandmother lay on the old sofa in the garden room with a blanket over her knees.

She was grey and small, and she was awake.

"There he is," she said. "My boy. The girl is with you. Good. Tell the fool of a doctor I will not go in a van."

"Madame," said the household doctor. "Your heart is skipping every third beat."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband Called Me Barren, Now a Billionaire Begs for Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.