Reborn: I Let My Mother Suffer the Price of Her Favoritism novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: The Brooch

The housekeeper was on our front step at seven the next morning with a suitcase and a coffee can.

She wore her church coat and her gray hair pinned back, and she held the can against her chest in both arms.

I had been awake since Dale left, with two words going round in my head.

Two hours, underlined, on the back of my mother's black book.

Everett and I had sat up asking what a person times, and neither of us had an answer.

"She fired me by text at midnight," she said. "I have until noon to clear my room above the garage."

"Come in," Everett said. "Please."

"I'd rather say it standing up."

"Then say it in the kitchen," I said. "I'll make coffee."

She sat at the maple table with the can in front of her and her hands flat on either side of it.

She was sixty-one.

In twelve years I had never once seen her sit in my mother's kitchen while someone else stood.

"I should have spoken a year ago," she said. "I'll say why, and then you can think what you like of me."

Everett put a cup down in front of her.

She did not touch it.

"Last Easter, Sloane knocked you down the back stairs."

"I remember."

"You lay at the bottom with your hip against the wall, and you couldn't get up. I came out of the pantry."

I waited.

"Your mother was standing on the upstairs landing," the housekeeper said. "Dale was at the front door, holding it open for the pastor. Nobody was holding you."

"I know. I lay there."

"She had your father's watch in her hand."

A cold finger touched the back of my neck.

"She was looking at it," the housekeeper said. "She stood there a long time, and she did not come down. I went to you, and she said, 'Leave her, she's all right.' And I did what I was told.

I stood there with my hand on the banister until she said you could be moved."

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend