He Demanded I Deny His Daughter, So I Walked Away novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Kitchen

I went back to the Sanborn house on Monday morning, through the kitchen door.

I still had a key.

Nobody had thought to take it from me.

Silvan waited in the truck at the end of the drive, because I had asked him to, and because he had understood why.

Adelaide was standing at the kitchen island in a pale gray robe, with a pot of tea and one cup.

She did not look surprised.

"Rochelle," she said. "Come in. You've lost weight."

"I know what you've been hiding."

"Sit down, dear."

"No."

I took the clinic page out of my pocket and laid it flat on the marble, next to the sugar bowl.

She looked down at it for a long moment, and her hand didn't move toward it.

"Where did you get that?"

"From a safe. It was kept for me."

"Lila's brother," she said, almost to herself. "Of course. He was always sentimental."

"She is mine."

"She is Rhett's daughter, and a Sanborn."

"She's mine by blood. You knew."

Adelaide poured her tea.

She set the pot down and turned to face me, and her face was calm, almost kind.

"I knew the day you walked into this kitchen," she said. "You stood at that sink with your hair wet from the rain, asking whether the little girl had eaten. And she lifted her face, and I saw her chin on yours."

I felt the kitchen tilt.

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