My Brother Called From the Ocean Floor, So I Hung Up novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: Dinner in Magnolia
I went to dinner because my mother asked me to.
She called at six. Her voice was small and scraped raw.
"Please come tonight. Your father wants to talk. I made pot roast."
It had been my favorite when I was nine.
I knew what it was for. I went anyway.
The house in Magnolia sits on a bluff over the Sound.
A long lawn runs down to a dock my father built the summer I turned twelve.
The dining room had the good tablecloth on.
My father sat at the head of the table.
My mother sat on his right with her eyes red.
Lowell Quist sat on his left, the leather folder beside his plate.
Kit sat across from me.
He had changed out of the hospital clothes. He wore a gray sweater and kept his bandaged hand in his lap.
I took the empty chair.
Nobody said grace. Nobody said hello.
My mother cut my meat into pieces, the way she did when I was small, and then realized what she was doing and put the knife down.
"Emmett," my father said. "Let's not make this a fight."
"I didn't start one."
"You started a fight with this family the second you hung up that phone."
"Harlan," my mother whispered.
"No, Ingrid. He asked for plain words, so he'll get them."
My father folded his hands on the tablecloth.
"Tomorrow morning there's a test of that flange," he said. "A test I know will find nothing wrong with it. But I've reviewed the position and I'm prepared to make this go away."
"Make what go away?"
"Quist."
Quist drew a single page from the folder and slid it down the table.
It was a typed statement.
It said that I had panicked during a distress call and that I regretted it.
It said I had personally approved the Rask flange on the Tern.
Keep reading free with an account. Start My Brother Called From the Ocean Floor, So I Hung Up from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →
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