This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Right on Schedule

Nobody in the apartment moved.

The candles kept burning on the chessboard cake.

Wax dripped onto the white queen.

Hank stood in the doorway with one hand still on the knob.

He didn't step aside.

"It's her birthday," he said.

"Then it's a memorable one," said the lawyer.

Trenton Ainsworth came up the last step and looked over Hank's head into the apartment.

He looked at the coats on the hooks and the building blocks Linus had never grown out of.

He looked at the paper streamers Fern had hung that morning, and the cake.

His nose wrinkled very slightly.

"This is where she's been living?"

"This is where she lives," said Fern, coming to stand at Hank's shoulder.

Trenton didn't look at her.

He looked at Hank's plain white shirt, his wire glasses, his face.

He forgot the face while he was looking at it.

Mabel saw it happen.

"You're the man who signed for her," Trenton said. "What do you do, Mr. Tully?"

"Claims."

"Of course you do."

A little girl stepped out from behind Trenton's long navy coat.

She was eight, blonde and pretty, in a pink wool coat with a fur collar and white tights.

She held her father's hand and looked around the landing with her nose scrunched up.

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