When Love's Sorrow Plays Again novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Dentist

Sunday lunch at the Blomqvist house in Kenwood was a family tradition, Julius told me in the car.

It was also the only place Roderick could not refuse to see us.

"Do not come," I said. "It's your family."

"It's the family that sent a process server to your daughter's school."

"Our daughter."

He looked over at me.

"Yes," he said. "Our daughter."

I had not meant to say it.

I put my hands in my lap and watched the lake go by.

The house was a stone pile with a copper roof and a long dining room full of old money.

The table was set for six.

Roderick sat at the head, where their father used to, in a navy blazer and no tie.

On his right sat the woman with the pearls, who chaired the board.

Beside her were two donors, a heavy man and his thin wife, who had both been on my audition panel.

A housekeeper in a grey dress stood at the sideboard and said nothing.

"Brother," Roderick said warmly. "And Ms. Hartwell. What a surprise. Please, sit."

"We'll stand," said Julius.

"Don't be dramatic. Eat."

"I'd like to talk about the money first."

The thin wife put her fork down.

Roderick sipped his wine.

"There's a time and place."

"This is the place. You told me for seven years that she married a dentist."

"Did I?" Roderick shrugged. "I must have heard it somewhere."

"You said it every Christmas, on the phone, in the same words."

"Julius, I wanted you to move on."

"By lying."

"By kindness." Roderick laid his napkin on the table. "You were twenty-five. You had a gift. She was a student with no family, and an obvious ambition to attach herself to a famous name. I paid her to go, and I'd do it again. Don't thank me."

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