The Necklace They Gave Me Last novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: What Her Father Gave Up
My father looked small in the hospital bed.
It was five in the morning, and the monitor beside him drew its green line across the dark.
I stood at the foot of the bed with my coat still on.
"Close the door," Alastair said.
I closed it.
"Your stepmother isn't here," he said. "I asked the nurse. She said nobody has come since yesterday."
"She's in the east wing under watch."
"By whose order?"
"Mine."
He took that in slowly.
Then he gave a short, hard breath that was almost a laugh.
"Your mother would have liked that," he said.
"Don't talk about her."
"Susannah."
"You told me to sit down."
He shut his eyes.
"In front of sixty people, with a phone on me, you told me to sit down. Twice."
"Pauline told me what to say."
"Do you hear how that sounds?"
"I hear it." His eyes opened, bloodshot and wet. "She came to my study the night before and put a list on my desk. Who gets which stone. Nothing for you. I asked why, and she said you'd ask for it in front of everyone and come home on your knees. She said it was the quickest way to bring you back to the firm."
"And you agreed."
"I have agreed to everything she's asked since you were fourteen."
"Then say what that made you."
"I have been a coward in my own house for thirteen years."
The monitor ticked.
I had waited most of my life to hear him say something true, and now that he had, I felt nothing but cold.
"You called me yourself," I said. "You told me you wanted me at the table."
"Pauline said it would look better if I called."
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