The Baby Couldn't Tie Him, The Lie Did novel · Chapter 16 of 32
Chapter 16: The Housekeeper
Blair blew a kiss at the camera.
Mitchell didn't look up.
The live video ended, and the screen went back to her page.
The kitchen was quiet except for the tap still running into the sink.
My mother turned it off.
"She can't be," she said. "She told you. In your own nursery."
"She isn't."
Nathan set his dish towel down on the counter very carefully.
"Then what's under the sweater?"
Nobody answered.
He said it anyway.
"A pillow in November. A baby in January. The same week as yours." He looked at my belly. "She's not planning to give birth, Val. She's planning to come home with one."
My mother sat down hard in her chair.
I put both hands on my stomach.
The baby had stopped hiccuping.
I pressed until I felt her push back against my palm.
"Nobody touches her," I said.
"No," Nathan said. "Nobody does."
He didn't go home that night.
He slept on my mother's couch in his flannel shirt with his boots by the door, and my mother slept in the chair.
One of them was always in the room that week.
On the seventh morning my mother's phone rang at the breakfast table.
She didn't recognize the number.
She almost let it go.
"Is this Maureen McCallum?" a woman said when she answered. "The one who cleaned on Crescent Row?"
My mother put it on speaker.
"Who's asking?"
"You don't know me." The woman's voice was low and rough, and she was breathing fast. "I kept house for Virginia Thornton for eleven years. Up on Hollins Hill. She let me go last month."
My mother and I looked at each other.
"I'm sorry to hear it," my mother said carefully.
"She said I took a brooch. I never took anything in my life." A breath. "I saw your girl in the paper. And I saw that other one on her video Thursday. With her belly."
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Baby Couldn't Tie Him, The Lie Did from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →
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