Forgotten Groom in the Back Alley novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Alley Again

Jude's POV

At four o'clock I stood in the alley where I had fallen.

The grease was gone.

Someone had scrubbed the cobbles and left a rubber mat by the door.

The dumpsters were the same, and so was the smell.

Hazel held the service door open with her shoulder.

"He's late," she said.

"He's not late. He's deciding."

Brodie came round the corner of the building at ten past, on foot, in a charcoal suit.

He carried a laptop bag over one shoulder.

He wore the gold band on his left hand, openly, where anyone could see it.

He stopped ten feet from me.

"I read her speech last night," he said. "It's on her desk. She's calling you a loyal friend who made a sacrifice."

"She promised to tell them the truth."

"She promised you. She hasn't promised herself." He took a breath. "I won't be in the room for that."

"Why now?"

He looked at the ground, and then at the mat by the door.

"Because on Saturday I watched you put a ring in a basket," he said. "Nobody stopped you. And I stood there in my vows, and I thought, I'm the reason nobody has to."

Hazel said nothing.

She had her arms folded and her face set.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Brodie said.

"Good, because I don't."

"I know." He lifted the bag off his shoulder. "I brought you something instead."

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