The Real Heiress Returns Five Brothers on Their Knees novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Staff End

At the Livingstone dinner Coralie is seated by the kitchen door, so she carries her place card up the table and sits beside her father. Then a photo of her kissing Winslow lands in all five brothers' phones, and Colton says she is sleeping with Brynn's fiancé.

My place card was at the far end of the table, next to the kitchen door.

I read it twice to make sure it was mine.

*Coralie.* One word, in silver pen, in Brynn's pretty handwriting.

The Livingstone dining room had a chandelier the size of a small car and a table that sat sixteen.

At the head sat Dalton, my eldest brother, in a gray suit with no tie.

On his right sat Brynn.

Down the sides sat the rest of them.

There was the cardiologist, the pilot, and the youngest with his hair still wet from the gym.

Colton sat across from them and did not look at me.

Mr. Livingstone sat at the other end, a thin silver-haired man with my own dark eyes.

He had not said a word to me yet.

Mrs. Livingstone hadn't either.

She had opened the front door and gripped my hands.

Then she had burst into tears, and a nurse had led her away to lie down.

Now she sat three seats from the head of the table, looking at her plate.

"Welcome home, Coralie," said Dalton, and lifted his glass.

Nobody else lifted theirs.

"Thank you," I said, and stayed standing.

The cardiologist cut his steak.

"We assumed you'd want to be near the kitchen," he said. "You must be used to it."

"Because my mother cooked for a living?"

"Because you probably get hungry early," said the pilot, and the youngest snorted into his wine.

Brynn put her fork down.

"That's enough," she said softly. "Please. She's had a long day."

She turned to me with wet eyes.

"I should have changed the cards. I told the housekeeper, and she misunderstood. Take mine, Coralie. I'll sit anywhere."

She half stood.

It was so generous that the whole table sighed.

Colton finally looked up.

"Sit down, Brynn. She doesn't get to make you move."

"I'm not making her move," I said.

I picked up my place card.

"I'm moving myself."

I walked the length of the table with sixteen chairs on either side and every eye on my back.

The only seat open was on Mr. Livingstone's left.

The cardiologist's place card sat in front of it.

I put my card on the cardiologist's plate.

"Hey," said the cardiologist.

"You can sit by the kitchen," I said. "You must be used to it."

Dalton's glass hit the tablecloth.

"Coralie."

"I'm a Livingstone at this table," I said.

"I'm not a guess, and I'm not staff."

"I'd like to sit next to my father."

Nobody moved.

Mr. Livingstone looked up at me.

He looked at my chin, and my eyes, and the stubborn set of my mouth.

Then he pulled out the chair beside him with his own hand.

"Sit," he said.

His voice cracked on the word.

I sat.

Mrs. Livingstone made a small sound, got up from her chair and came around the table.

She cupped my face in both hands.

"You have my mother's chin," she whispered. "Oh, you have her chin."

I let her hold my face.

My eyes burned.

I did not let them spill, because the whole table was watching.

One brother was waiting for me to cry.

Brynn dabbed her eyes with a napkin.

"I'm so happy," she said. "Everyone, can we please be kind?"

Down the table, Colton said nothing.

His jaw was working.

Dessert came, and nobody ate it.

I tasted nothing but Winslow.

He had kissed me hard once more on the steps of his building, before I got into the car.

I thought about his ring against my wrist and the nine o'clock text.

Brynn laughed at something the youngest said.

Then, at once, five phones buzzed on the tablecloth.

Dalton's, Colton's, the cardiologist's, the pilot's and the youngest's.

Dalton picked his up and frowned.

"It's a group message," he said. "Unknown number. A photo."

He turned the screen around.

It showed a woman in a long coat on the steps of a glass tower.

She had her arms around the neck of a tall man in a charcoal suit.

It was me.

The man's right hand was on my back.

On that hand was a silver ring with a lighthouse on it.

Brynn went white.

"That's Winslow," she whispered. "That's Winslow Taft."

Colton stood so fast his chair fell over.

"You're sleeping with Brynn's fiancé," he said.

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