Chapter 5: The Closet

The doorman at Colin's building still had my name on his list.

"Ms. Broughton," he said. "He's at work, but you're welcome upstairs."

"I came to pick up my things."

"Of course."

Hattie came with me, still in her scrubs from a double shift, with three flattened boxes under her arm.

In the lobby, two neighbors I knew by sight were waiting for the elevator.

One of them turned her phone toward me.

"Are you the bride?" she asked.

"I'm the bride," I said.

"Good for you."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I nodded.

Upstairs, the door of the penthouse was unlocked and slightly open.

I pushed it with two fingers.

Rowena Sayre was standing in Colin's kitchen in a cream silk robe, pouring coffee into one of the cups I had bought him.

She looked up and smiled with her whole face.

"Cassandra," she said. "Oh, I'm so glad it's you."

Hattie said something under her breath that I decided not to hear.

"Colin's at the office," Rowena said. "He gave me a key so I could let in the movers. I assumed you'd send movers."

"I sent a friend."

"Of course you did." She set the pot down. "Please, take whatever you need. I'll stay out of your way."

She said it so gently that for a moment I wanted to thank her.

I remembered the flowers, and I did not thank her.

Keep reading free with an account. Start After He Gave My Wedding Away, I Built My Empire from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.