He Locked Me Out and Let Her In novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Dean's Mother

Maddie's POV

The notice was taped to the glass doors at eye level, where nobody could miss it.

I read it twice in the morning light.

Sixty days.

Eastside had been in that building for thirty years, and in sixty days it would have to be out.

The owner stood in the lobby in her cardigan, with her glasses in her hand.

"The holding company is a Stroud company," she said. "I checked. I've paid them rent since before you were out of high school."

"Because of me," I said.

"Because of a girl who didn't get her way." She looked at Reuben. "I will not blame you for that, Maddie. I'll blame the person who sent it."

Behind her, the staff were arriving for the day shift, and they stopped to read the notice one by one.

Nobody said a word.

That was when the front doors opened again, and a woman in a navy church coat came in with a plain handbag held in front of her.

She was in her late fifties, and she had Dean's sandy hair gone to grey, and Dean's chin.

She looked around the lobby like someone expecting to be thrown out.

"Excuse me," she said. "Is there a Maddie Donahue here?"

"That's me."

She walked up to me and stopped, close enough that I could smell her hand cream.

"I'm Dean's mother," she said. "I took the train from Naperville. I saw the video."

I did not know what my face was doing.

"Ma'am, if you came to ask me to take him back," I started.

"No."

She said it so firmly that I blinked.

"I came to say I'm sorry," she said. "I raised him, so I'm sorry. And I came to show you something, because I think you're the only one who will understand it."

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