Chapter 6: The Waiting Room

"Your cousin," I said.

"My cousin. He runs operations. He sits at my right hand at every board meeting."

Kenneth stared at the frozen kiss on the screen.

A muscle jumped in his jaw.

"He told me last month he wanted to be considered for my job," he said. "Now I'm wondering what else he wants."

"Do you think he's the father?"

"I think he knows more than he's saying."

He turned off the screen and the room went dark except for the small lamp on the table.

"Molly," he said, and it was the first time he had used my first name.

My stomach did a slow turn.

"I need you to stay out of this building's stairwells," he said. "And out of elevators alone. And don't tell anyone what you saw tonight."

"You're giving me orders again."

"I'm asking."

"Why are you helping me?"

He took a long time to answer.

"Because she told a lie about you in front of my whole company," he said. "And I'm the one who signs your paycheck."

It was a good answer.

It was not the whole answer, and we both knew it.

"Thursday," he said. "Your father's procedure. Which hospital?"

"How do you know it's Thursday?"

"You filed a family leave request this afternoon. HR showed it to me."

It was true.

I had filed it from my phone in the garage.

I let it go.

I was tired, and my father's heart was waiting for me, and I said, "Good night, Mr. Ashworth."

"Kenneth," he said to my back.

"Good night, Kenneth."

On Thursday morning I sat in a green plastic chair in the cardiac waiting room, holding my mother's hand.

She was knitting.

She had no business knitting at a time like this, but she had done it through every crisis of my life.

The needles clicked.

The television on the wall was playing a cooking show with no sound.

"He's going to be fine," June said.

"I know."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Not Dying for Her Lie Again from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.