Broken Oaths in White Coats novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: After Nine

Ben's POV

By the second week, Laurel had a toothbrush in my bathroom and a drawer in my dresser.

Neither of us had mentioned it.

On Sunday night we lay in my bed with the lamp off and the lake wind working at the window.

It was a quarter past eleven.

She had her head on my shoulder and her left hand spread on my chest, the scar across her palm warm against my skin.

I was close to sleep when she spoke.

"Alastair's lawyer wants a hearing date by the first of December."

I kept still.

It was after nine. We had a rule, and I had written it myself.

I felt her wait for me to say so.

"Go on," I said.

She was quiet for a while.

"He never asked me one question about the baby. Not in the first week, not in the first year."

"I know. You told the board."

"I told the board the facts." Her breath moved against my collarbone. "I didn't tell them what I did. I came home from the hospital and went straight into the shower and ran it until it was cold."

I laid my hand over her hair.

"He knocked once. I said I was fine. And he said, 'Good,' and went downstairs."

"Laurel."

"I stood there until the water ran out. I kept waiting for him to knock again." Her voice was perfectly level. "He didn't. And the next day I went back to work, because there was nothing in that house to go back to."

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