My Husband Left Me Out of the Christmas I Paid For, So I Left novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Kendra on Main Street

Ellie's bakery opened at eight on the day after Christmas, and by nine the line ran out the door and onto Main Street.

I stood in it with Stian's mother, who had come for bread and said she never waited in a line in a town where she knew the baker.

"Your phone has been buzzing in your pocket for ten minutes," she said.

"I'm ignoring it."

"Good. Ignore it with a cinnamon roll."

Behind us a man in a plow-company cap said, "That's her, isn't it? The one from the cabin?"

"Hush, you," Stian's mother said. "Let her buy a roll."

A silver SUV with Hayward plates swung into the curb across the street.

It stopped crooked, with one wheel on the snowbank.

Kendra got out in her puffer vest, with her long hair tangled and no makeup on.

She crossed through the traffic without looking, and the line turned its head.

"Dawn!"

I stepped out of the line.

"You didn't call me back," Kendra said. "I left you a voicemail."

"I got it. I'm sorry about your wedding."

"Are you?"

"Yes."

"Then pay for it."

The street got quiet.

Ellie appeared in the bakery doorway with flour to her elbows and a rolling pin in one hand, and she did not say a word.

"Pay for what?" I said.

"The deposit." Kendra's voice shook. "Eight thousand, nonrefundable. The caterer wants half by Friday or they keep it. The dress is cut to my size, and nobody will buy it. He's gone, and it's your fault."

"It's not my fault he left."

"He left because you told everyone!"

"I told fourteen people the truth, once, with paper."

"You could have waited until after Christmas. Marjorie asked you."

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