I Don't Need Your Blue Roses Anymore novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Fourteen Houses
Marigold Court was a cul-de-sac of tidy gray houses with identical porches and no lemon tree.
The signs at the corner said *Wardell Heights*.
It was Wednesday at noon, and the families of Marigold Court stood on the sidewalk in the sun.
There were fourteen of them by then, because three more had come from Nevada.
Nate stood behind me with his hands in his pockets.
Frances held my elbow.
My father was already at the curb.
He was alone.
He wore no jacket and no tie, and there was no lawyer with a folder at his shoulder.
His shirt was creased from a night in a chair.
He waited until every person on the sidewalk was looking at him, and then he took off his watch and held it in his hand.
"I'm going to say this once," my father said. "Nobody is going to like how I say it."
Nobody answered.
"Seventeen years ago I wanted this land," he said. "I knew your pipes were sound. I had the county send the notices anyway, because it was faster than buying you out at what the houses were worth. Most of you took the money. Some of you didn't."
He turned and looked at the old man in the loose suit.
"You didn't," he said. "I had the sheriff come. Your neighbor sat down on this curb, and he died here, and I read about it in the paper the next morning."
His voice cracked on *morning*, and he cleared his throat.
"I told myself it was his heart," my father said. "I've been telling myself for seventeen years. It was what I did."
Keep reading free with an account. Start I Don't Need Your Blue Roses Anymore from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →
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