After the Divorce, I Became His First Love's Sister-in-Law novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Third Rain
"I knew for three weeks," Etienne said. "I suspected for months."
We were standing in the hall of the Marchand house with the rain still running off my gown onto his marble floor.
He did not make an excuse.
That made it worse.
"Months," I said.
"Since the first time Delphine told me the hospital story. She told it too smoothly. She never once said what the room smelled like."
"And you said nothing."
"I had no proof. A feeling is not proof." He pushed wet hair off his forehead. "Then, three weeks ago, you told me about the dead key, and I went to St. Brigid's the next morning."
"And you said nothing for three weeks."
"Yes."
"You let me sit next to her on that bench." My voice shook. "You let me turn her pages while she played my piece, and you knew."
"I wanted it to land in front of everyone. Where Colin could not call you a liar. Where she could not cry her way out."
"I didn't need it to land," I said. "I needed to be told."
He took one step toward me, and I let him.
I was so cold that my teeth hurt.
"You are shaking," he said.
"I'm angry."
"You are both."
He took my elbow and walked me up the stairs to the blue bedroom, the one I had slept in alone exactly once.
He turned on the lamp and knelt to unfasten the wet hem of the gown from around my ankles.
I stood very still and let him do it.
His fingers were warm on the back of my knee, a place he had never touched before, and the touch did not stop when the knot did.
I looked down at his dark head.
"Etienne."
"I know."
He drew down the zipper at my back and the gown fell, heavy and cold.
I stood in front of him in my wet slip, and he stood up and took a towel from the chair.
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