The Man Who Can't Let Her Go novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Day Thirty
For twenty-nine nights, Lydia did not open the door.
He knocked at eleven, every night, once, and waited.
She sat on her side of the wood with her back against it.
He sat on his, in the corridor.
They talked through the door about the hospital, and Henrietta's complaints about the soup, and the garden, and the dog that had been next door when they were twelve and fourteen.
He never tried the handle.
She read one of his letters every night after he left.
On the twenty-ninth she read the last, and she was still crying when the clock struck three.
On the thirtieth night, at eleven, he knocked.
She was standing right behind the door in her bare feet.
She opened it.
He stood in the corridor in his shirtsleeves, with his hands at his sides and his hair damp.
He looked at her, and the whole length of him went still.
"It's day thirty," he said.
"I know what day it is."
"You don't have to. I'll sit out here until the thirty-first, and the thirty-second."
"Hayden."
"Yes."
"Come in."
He came in slowly, one step at a time.
She shut the door behind him and turned the key, and leaned back against the wood.
"I read all of them," she said.
"All thirty-six?"
"All thirty-six. I read the one about the rain four times."
His throat moved.
"I wrote that one in March," he said. "It rained for eleven days and I walked to your office every morning."
"I know. I read it."
"I'm still sorry."
"I know that too."
She pushed away from the door and walked up to him until there was no space left between them.
She put her palm flat over his heart.
It was hammering.
"Now take it off," she said.
"What?"
"The chain. You said you'd keep the ring until I asked."
He reached up with unsteady hands and undid the clasp.
The chipped gold slid off the chain into his palm.
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