The Bride Changed. The Bill Didn't. novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Forty Thousand to Cry

Cal had scanned every page of my father's notebook by midnight.

I asked him to, this time, and he said yes before I finished the sentence.

The scans went to Florence, to the Rome lawyer, and to a cloud folder with my name on it.

The notebook itself went back in my bag, and the bag stayed on my shoulder.

At nine on Friday morning Cal went out for coffee.

I was washing two mugs when the doorbell rang.

Kelsey stood on my porch alone.

She wore a gray sweatshirt and no makeup, and she had the look of a person who had not slept in two nights.

Her suitcase sat at her feet.

"I'll call the police," I said.

"Please don't. Mara, please."

"You have thirty seconds."

She wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"There is no baby," she said.

The street was quiet.

A dog barked three houses down.

"Say that again."

"There's no baby. I was never pregnant. I made it up."

I did not move.

"Estelle came to me in August," she said. "She said Dalton didn't love you, and he was only waiting for a reason. She said I could be the reason."

"The reason."

"She said if I told you I was pregnant, you'd have to let him go. And then I'd have the wedding, the house, the name." Her voice cracked. "She gave me forty thousand dollars. Twenty up front, twenty at the ceremony."

"For lying to me."

"For crying on cue. She told me exactly when."

I put my hand on the door frame.

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