He Let Them Think She Was His novel · Chapter 25 of 32

Chapter 25: The Portrait Wall

Kit wouldn't go in the front door.

"I'll wait in the truck," she said on Wednesday afternoon, with Lottie asleep against her shoulder.

"Ward's in Billings until Friday."

"I know. The foreman told me." She looked at the big white house with its green roof and its wide porch. "I signed a paper in a hospital bed because I was scared of this house."

"Then walk in with me while he's gone," I said. "Once."

Lorna had left the front door unlocked, with a note on the hall table in her small, upright hand.

I'm at the doctor's in town. Take what you need. L.

I didn't tell Kit what the note meant.

I didn't know yet.

The hall was cool and smelled of lemon oil and old wood.

Kit stopped under the first frame, with her chin up and Lottie's hat in her free hand.

The portrait wall ran the whole length of the hall, forty feet of Renner men in their best hats.

There were no women on it, except Lorna, in one small photograph by the stairs, standing behind Ward's chair.

"Four generations," I said. "Ward shows it to every guest who comes through the door."

Kit looked at the first row, then the second.

"They all have it," she said quietly.

"Have what?"

"Her eyes."

She was right.

I had walked past that wall for ten years and never put the two things together.

Gray, with a dark ring around the iris, in every face from 1925 to Jesse's wedding picture.

← Chapter 24 · All chapters · Chapter 26 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend