Seven Men Called Me Her Stand-In, So I Made Them Pay novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Letter

My mother took the letter out of the lining of her cardigan at six on Monday morning, two hours before surgery.

She had sewn a small pocket there years ago and moved it from coat to coat.

"It's been in every one I own," Janet said. "I couldn't make myself burn it, and I couldn't give it to you."

"Why not?"

"Because you'd have gone to him." She held it out. "And I wasn't ready to be the only one left in the house."

I took it.

The envelope had gone brown at the corners.

On the front, in handwriting I knew from a hundred napkin notes, someone had written: Tessa.

I opened it at the window.

It was one page.

"Tessa. I was a coward, and my father's son. I signed what he put in front of me. I know that isn't an excuse, and I won't ask you to take it for one. My statement is in a box in Boston, and so am I whenever you want me. I'll be at the Brandreth office on Beacon Street. I'll be there until you say stop. Anthony."

I read it twice.

Then I folded it back into the envelope and walked out.

He was in the corridor outside pre-op, in the same clothes as the day before, with a dark bruise along his jaw.

When he saw the envelope in my hand, his face went still.

"You gave her that?" he said to the ceiling, meaning my mother.

"She kept it. Seven years."

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