Claire and Nicholas After Divorce novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Linden & Son

Linden and Son had been an architecture office on Ames Row, three doors from the workroom where my mother once sewed hems for a living.

I had never been inside it either.

I stood on the pavement at ten to nine and watched Nicholas's car pull in.

He got out with his right hand wrapped in white gauze.

He looked like he had not slept since the garage.

"You came," I said.

"I have the key."

"I know."

He unlocked the door himself.

Inside, the office smelled of old paper and dust.

Sheets covered the drafting tables, and the blinds were drawn.

Nicholas pulled a sheet off the nearest table, and his father's last drawing lay on it, held down by a brass ruler.

He stood very still.

"It's exactly how he left it."

"I paid the auction to keep it that way."

"Why?"

I walked to the back wall, where a corkboard hung under a dead lamp.

Pinned to it, brown at the corners, was a small folded program.

It was black, printed with a silver cross and a name.

IN LOVING MEMORY, beloved husband and father.

I took it down and put it in his hands.

"Open it."

He opened it.

On the inside back page, in my own handwriting, was a line of blue ink.

C. Ames. Back row. I'm so sorry.

I had written it on my knee, in the pew, and I had never been able to throw the program away.

Nicholas looked at it for a long time.

"Back row," he said slowly. "There was a girl in the back row."

"Yes."

"She was crying so hard the usher offered her a glass of water. I went out to the church steps after the service because I couldn't breathe, and someone put a hand on my arm."

"Yes."

"She didn't say anything. She stayed with me until I stopped shaking. Then she was gone."

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