My Husband Demanded a Paternity Test over Our Daughter's Red Hair, So I Left Him an Empty House novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Judith's Table

I went.

Kate said I was out of my mind and drove me anyway, and then took June back to the flat.

"Rule one is mine to break," I told her on the curb. "I want to see her face when I walk in."

Daniel opened Judith's front door before I knocked.

He had on his church shirt. He looked like a man who had been awake since Thursday.

"You didn't have to come," he said.

"She texted me. She wants a family."

"Lydia."

"Let's go eat her pot roast."

Judith's dining room had candles and the good plates.

Daniel's aunt sat at the table with a flour-dusted purse on her lap.

Beside her was a man in a gray cardigan, with a Bible next to his water glass.

"Pastor," I said.

"Lydia." He rose halfway. He looked like he wished he'd stayed home.

Judith swept in from the kitchen with a platter.

"I'm so glad you came," she said, and she kissed my cheek.

Her lips were cold and dry. I let her.

We ate. Nobody said anything for a while except to pass the carrots.

Then Judith set down her fork.

"I asked Pastor to join us because this has become a very public sorrow," she said. "I think we can end it tonight."

"How," Daniel said.

"I'll withdraw the petition. I'll cancel the lawyer." She smiled at me. "I was frightened for a baby, and I acted. A grandmother does."

I kept my hands in my lap.

"And the loan," she said, turning to her son. "Thirty thousand dollars for the down payment on Maple Court. I'll tear up the note. That house will be yours and Lydia's free and clear."

The aunt put down her glass.

"What do you want, Judy?"

"Only two small things." Judith took a folded paper from under her napkin and slid it along the cloth to Daniel. "A statement. That Lydia was unwell at the birth and not herself in the weeks after. That the hospital said so. The pastor will witness it."

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