Condemned by My Sister novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The House

The sign went up on the lawn on a Monday, and Marianne stood on the porch and watched the man hammer it in.

It said SOLD before the week was out.

"You don't have to," the real estate agent said. "It's a beautiful house."

"I know what it is," Marianne said.

She had not slept in it since the night the locks were changed.

She had moved into a rented apartment across town, with one chair and a bed and a lamp.

It was the first place I had ever followed her into that had nothing of Corbin in it.

The movers came on Thursday and carried the furniture out through the front door.

By afternoon the rooms were bare, and her footsteps rang in them.

I walked behind her through every one, and I felt the house get smaller around me.

The kitchen, where the housekeeper had stood at the sink.

My bedroom, with a pale square on the wall where a poster had been.

Corbin's room at the end of the hall, and the empty shoe box shelf.

Marianne stopped in the hall at the foot of the stairs.

The last mover had gone, and a man from the detective's office was coming at four to take photographs for the file.

She stood and looked at the newel post, the big carved one at the bottom, with a ball on top.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Condemned by My Sister from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.