Offsides - A Forbidden Summer novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Read the Date

"Thank you all for coming," my mother said.

Her voice was steady and sweet, and it carried to the back of the kitchen.

"I wasn't going to say anything today. I wanted to watch the game with the people I love. But I think you deserve the truth, and I think I deserve to say it myself."

Gordon stood beside her with one hand at her back, looking sorrowful.

"I've been away for the summer," my mother said. "Some of you know I took a work contract. What you don't know is that it was a way to cope. My marriage had been in trouble for a long time."

My uncle shifted in his folding chair.

"I came home on Thursday, and I found that while I was gone, my husband had begun an affair." She paused, and a tear slid down one cheek, exactly where it should. "With my own daughter."

A gasp went through the room, and then a terrible quiet.

Forty-one faces turned toward me.

"She is twenty-two," my mother said. "She is a child I raised. And he is a man twice her age who held a position of trust in our family. I won't say more. I only want you to know that the divorce I am filing is not my choice."

I stood up.

I hadn't decided to.

My knees were shaking, and the yellow dress felt like armor made of paper.

"Katie," Devin said quietly, and half rose with me.

"I've got it."

I walked across the den to the TV stand, where the green folder lay under the remote.

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