A Marriage Left Behind novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Guests

I went back in because the old woman took my arm, and because the snow was going down my collar.

The great room had changed in the five minutes I was gone.

Judith stood at the head of the table with her hands folded, and the whole room was listening to her.

Her eyes were red.

Her voice was perfectly steady.

"I'm so sorry you've had to see this," she was saying. "It's a domestic problem. Maura is under a great deal of strain."

"Judith," I said from the doorway.

She didn't turn around.

"She has not been herself since her promotion. We have all tried to be patient."

"I haven't had a promotion in two years."

"And so, for the inconvenience," Judith went on, louder, "I'd like to offer each of you twenty percent off your next stay."

"And tonight's dinner is on the house."

A woman in a red blazer glanced at her husband.

He was looking at the guest book, which the old woman had put back in her lap.

I walked up the table and stopped by the green sweater.

"May I?" I asked.

I took out my phone and found the first photo from Kylie's pantry.

I held it up so he could read the heading.

The man in the green sweater adjusted his glasses and read for some time.

"The Maura Fund," he said aloud.

"It's a list of what I've paid," I said. "Kylie taped it inside her pantry door."

"Maura, don't," Kylie said from her chair, thin and fast.

Keep reading free with an account. Start A Marriage Left Behind from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.