They Left Me Out of Their Group So I'll Leave Them Out of My Life novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Pie

Nate's POV

On Tuesday afternoon the waiting room was full.

I had a bulldog on the scale, two cats in carriers, and a man holding a hamster cage in both hands.

Corina was in the back with a litter of kittens that needed their first shots.

She had come in that morning with shadows under her eyes and said she was fine.

I hadn't believed her, and I hadn't pushed.

I had learned a long time ago that you don't push her.

You leave the door open and wait for her to walk through it.

I was writing up the bulldog's chart when the front bell rang.

A small woman in a lavender cardigan came in with a pie in both hands.

She stopped inside the door and smiled at the whole room.

"Hello, everybody," she said. "I'm so sorry to interrupt. I'm Bernice Dutton. I'm Corina's mother."

I put down my pen.

"Mrs. Dutton."

"Dr. Ebersole! I've heard such lovely things." She held out the pie. "I made this for the staff. It's apple. It's my husband's favorite."

I didn't take it.

She set it on the desk anyway, very gently, and turned back to the room.

"I wanted to say something to all of you, if I could," she said. "As a mother."

The man with the hamster cage looked up.

The bulldog's owner stopped petting the bulldog.

"Corina's been having a very hard time," Bernice said. "She isn't herself. She's had some trouble with money lately, and I think it's affected her judgment. I'm so worried about her."

"Mrs. Dutton," I said.

"I just don't want any of you to be alarmed if you've seen things online. Please be kind. She's very fragile, and she has a history of taking things from her family without asking, and I would hate for it to get worse."

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