The Men Who Walked Out novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Housemates

Daphne's POV

"Not from you what?" I said again.

Dad took his glasses off and set them on the table.

Elliot turned from the counter, and neither of them answered.

"I heard 'twenty-nine years,'" I said. "I heard 'half a daughter.'"

"Which one of you is going to tell me what that means?"

"Daphne," Dad said gently. "Sit down."

"I'd rather stand."

"I'll tell you. I promise I will. Not tonight."

"Why not tonight?"

"Because I want to pick the day," he said.

"You've had enough for one week, and I want it to be mine to give."

His hands lay flat on the table, and I saw they weren't steady.

I looked at Elliot.

"You know what he's talking about."

"Yes."

"Tell me."

"No," Elliot said.

He said it quietly, and he didn't look away.

"It isn't mine to tell."

"I live in your house."

"You do. I'd still say no."

"I've known you four years."

"And you've known him your whole life," Elliot said. "That's why it should come from him."

I turned and went back up the stairs.

I didn't slam anything, because there was nothing in that house of his that I had a right to slam.

I lay on the bed in his grandmother's sewing room for half an hour.

At eleven-thirty I heard Elliot on the landing.

"I have to go to the lab," he said through the door.

"Your dad's notebooks. If the lock changes in the morning, I want them tonight."

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