The Stranger I Married novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Couch
He was on my doorstep at nine that night with a gray duffel bag over his shoulder.
I opened the door three inches on the chain.
"No," I said.
"I haven't said anything."
"You have a bag.
Bags are a statement."
"I have nowhere to be," Elias said.
"My mother changed the locks on the owner's suite at six o'clock.
My keycard is dead, my company car belongs to the company, and my hotel is her hotel.
I had a lot of options this afternoon, and most of them involved a hotel with a lobby I'd have to pretend I wasn't crying in."
"You're not crying."
"Not yet.
I'm saving it."
Behind me, Carly's voice floated out of the kitchen.
"Is that him?"
"It's him."
"Let him in so I can say what I want to say."
I took off the chain.
He stepped into my apartment, and it got smaller.
It was three rooms with a slanted ceiling, a green couch and a hundred jars of dried stems on every shelf.
He ducked under the lamp and looked around.
Carly sat at the kitchen table with a cold pizza box open in front of her.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Stranger I Married are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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