Better Than My Ex novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Mother

I took her upstairs and put the kettle on.

Neither of us said anything until she had a mug in her hands.

Christopher's mother sat very straight at my kitchen table, with her cane hooked on the chair.

She looked at the groceries still piled by the fridge, then at me.

"I owe you an explanation for turning up like this."

"You don't."

"I do." She took a sip. "My niece showed me Lydia's pages on Thursday. I don't read that sort of thing, but she does."

"The beach."

"The beach. And on Friday night, the picture of you walking away."

She said it plainly.

"I looked at that picture for a long time, Mara. You were wearing the black dress you had on at my son's funeral."

I hadn't known she would remember what I'd worn.

"You held my hand then," she said. "Nobody else did. They all hugged Lydia."

"I didn't know what to say."

"Nobody does. You didn't say anything, and it was the kindest thing anyone did that day."

She set the mug down.

"I'd like to ask you something, and you can tell me to leave. Did Lydia and Bryson have a relationship before my son died?"

I should have chosen my words.

I didn't.

I took my phone from my bag, found the photo of the deed, and slid it across the table.

"Bryson paid thirty-eight thousand dollars toward this house," I said. "It was my money. He told me his mother needed surgery."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Better Than My Ex from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.