The End of Us novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: What He Felt

Isla's POV

Keith came back to the cabin at one in the morning, and he told me about Maud at the gate.

"She asked for a truce until the full moon," he said. "She says she wants her son to apologize to you alone, with no guard, and no witnesses."

"And you said?"

"I said it was your choice."

"Her hand," I said. "You said her hand was bare."

"She says the ring is at a jeweler in Harlow Falls. For cleaning."

"For seventeen years she never took it off to wash dishes."

"I told her I'd noticed."

He didn't smile, and neither did I.

Quinton came at dusk the next day.

He walked across the iron bridge alone and on foot, in a plain grey sweater, with his hands visible at his sides.

Keith stood at the edge of the porch, leaning on a post, and he did not leave.

I did not ask him to.

I stayed on the top step, and Quinton stopped at the bottom of it, and for a while neither of us spoke.

"Marina told me what she said to you," he said at last. "She came home and she cried, and she told me everything."

"Then you know she lied."

"I know she said I stayed with her." He lifted his head. "I sat in her kitchen. I didn't touch her, Isla. I'd never touch her."

"I believe you."

His shoulders dropped, and he took a long, ragged breath.

"But I need you to hear this," I said. "Two months ago I was seven weeks pregnant, and I woke up in the pack clinic at eight in the evening, bleeding. The nurse told me to stay still. I texted you."

"I know."

"I wrote, Please come. Something is wrong with the baby."

"I know what you wrote."

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