This Is Where We Stop novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Shoulder

I got out of the ballroom through the side door.

I made it to the ladies' room before my knees gave out.

I held on to the edge of the marble sink and ran the cold tap over my wrists.

My face in the mirror looked like a woman who had walked out of a surgery that went well.

I did not feel like a woman who had won.

Behind me, the door opened.

I saw the pink dress in the glass before I saw her face.

"Mara."

Chantal locked the door with a small click.

She leaned her back against it.

Her curls had come down on one side, and her mascara had run.

There was nothing warm left in her at all.

"Are you proud of yourself?" she said.

"No."

"You stood up there and made him a murderer in front of the whole county. In front of the mayor."

"I read what he signed."

"You planned it. You and your boyfriend. You flew home to ruin him."

"I flew home to make him say it out loud."

"He has done nothing but take care of people his entire life!"

Her voice cracked off the tile.

"He took care of me when no one else would.

"When my father drank, when my first husband left, when my second husband left.

"Who do you think held me up? You?"

"I know exactly who held you up, Chantal. I was married to him."

"You were never there!"

Her hand came up and shook at me, red nails and a ring on every finger.

"You were always at the hospital, and he was lonely.

"I was the only one who ever asked how he was."

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