I Didn't Marry Him, I Married The One He Hated novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Sunday Dinner

Greta set the table for five, with the good china and a roast nobody touched.

I sat across from Shelby, and Magnus sat beside me.

The inspector had come on Friday, as promised, and found me in the loft, in Magnus's kitchen, with my mother's ring on one hand and his band on the other.

I had moved back on Thursday night.

That was all I was going to say about it, and Magnus had been wise enough not to ask.

Now Trevor sat at the head of the table, where Olaf used to sit, with Shelby at his elbow.

Her hair was brushed forward, and she was wearing a ring I had never seen.

It was small and new, and she kept turning it with her thumb.

Greta stood up before anyone lifted a fork.

She had her letter in her left hand and her pearls in her right.

"I'm going to read this once," she said. "No one will interrupt me."

"Mom," Trevor said. "We don't have to do this."

"Sit."

He sat.

She read it in a flat, careful voice.

I had heard it already, and it still went through me.

Olaf had written about the party on the hill, about the truck, about his phone ringing near midnight, and about the hospital hallway.

He wrote that he had looked at his stepson on the gurney and chosen the wrong son to save.

He wrote that Greta would hate him for it, and that she should, and that she should please turn that hate around and point it at the right place.

When she got to the line about Magnus, her voice cracked, and she stopped and put the page down.

Nobody spoke.

A clock ticked in the hall.

"That's not Dad's handwriting," Trevor said.

"It's his hand."

"He was sick. He wasn't in his right mind."

"He wrote that eight months before he died," Greta said, "and he balanced the yard's books the week after."

← Chapter 16 · All chapters · Chapter 18 →

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