The Day I Divorced Him, I Became His Landlord novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Front Door

"Come home, dear," Lillian said in the hotel lobby. "Come back to the big house tonight. Cancel the lease or keep it, I'll sign whatever you like. We could be a family again."

She said it softly, with her head tilted, and she meant every word.

That was the horror of her.

"Goodnight, Lillian," I said, and I pushed through the glass doors.

I drove to the estate with the window down and parked in front of the manor.

The east guest room was exactly as I had left it, except the second white bottle was gone and the bed was made.

I put my things in Joaquin's duffel: two dresses, a jersey, the brush my mother gave me.

I carried it down the front stairs, and I stepped outside onto the gravel.

Then I turned around, and I pulled the great front door shut, and I locked it with the brass key that had hung on my key ring for five years.

It clicked.

It was a very small sound.

I stood there with my hand on the cold wood for a while.

Then I walked across the dark lawn and along the edge of the old block to the stone cottage, where the lamp was still lit in the window.

Wyatt opened the door before I knocked.

He had taken off his jacket and tie, and his lip was split and swollen.

He looked at the duffel, and then at the manor key in my hand.

"If she asked you nicely," he said, "I'd understand. It's a good house, and she's the only family you've had here."

"That's what you think I'll do?"

"You stayed five years."

"I stayed because nobody told me," I said. "You know that. You're the only person who could have told me."

His face closed over.

I took his hand, turned it over, and pressed the key into the palm.

"Hold it. I locked her out of my life, and I don't want it in my pocket tonight."

His fingers closed on the brass.

He stood very still.

"Marisol."

"Don't call me Ms. Quintero. I'm not in a lease mood."

"I'm your tenant," he said, hoarse. "Nothing owed either way, you said. You don't owe me a thing tonight, and I'd rather you didn't pay it."

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