Five Years Gone, She Walked Back In, So I Walked Out novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Welcome Home, Lorna
Stevie comes home from her daughter's recital to a banner welcoming her husband's runaway fiancée, takes it down in front of the family, and learns her husband has already agreed that Lorna will move in.
When I came home from my daughter's recital, a banner hung across our living room that said WELCOME HOME, LORNA.
I stood in the doorway with her tiny cardboard guitar in my hand.
The house was full of people.
My husband's cousins held plastic cups. His mother sat in the good armchair with her hands folded.
In the middle of the room stood the woman who had left my husband eleven days before their wedding.
Lorna Carmody had been gone five years.
Behind her, with a plate of cheese cubes, stood her brother.
I had not seen either of them since the week they vanished, and my mind went completely blank.
"Stevie!" Lorna crossed the room with both hands out. "You're Stevie. I would know you anywhere."
She held my hands and squeezed them.
"Sawyer's told me everything," she said. "You've done such a beautiful job with this house. And with him. Thank you for taking such good care of him."
Her voice shook a little.
She looked tired and kind, and she wore a good wool coat that had gone thin at the cuffs.
I had a speech ready for this woman, if I ever met her. It was a hard one.
It would not come.
My husband stood by the fireplace with his arms crossed.
He had told me that morning, "Mom's having a few people over. Nothing you need to worry about."
He did not look at me now.
On the far side of the room, my father stood in the kitchen doorway with his coat still buttoned.
My father had not set foot in the Rutledge house in five years. He said the family looked down on him.
He was here today.
Lorna turned her head and saw him.
My father put his glass down on the counter without a sound. He walked out the back door before anyone could say his name.
"Was that your dad?" Lorna asked me softly.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry. Is he all right?"
"He's fine," I said. "He doesn't like crowds."
I did not know why I lied.
Sawyer's mother rose from her armchair and tapped a spoon on her glass.
"Everyone," she said. "Let's have a toast."
The room turned to her.
"Five years is a long time to wait for a family to be whole," she said. "To Lorna, who is home. To the family we should have had."
Nobody drank.
Somebody's cousin coughed.
Poppy slipped her hand into mine. She was still in her little green recital dress, and she looked up at me, waiting to be told what this meant.
"Mama? Who's that lady?"
I looked at my mother-in-law.
I looked at my husband, who studied the rug.
I looked at the banner, which somebody had hung with my own picture hooks.
"Excuse me," I said.
I set Poppy's cardboard guitar on the table.
I walked across the room and stood on the arm of the sofa.
I took hold of the banner at one end and pulled the hooks out of the wall one by one.
Plaster dust came down onto the carpet.
"Stevie," Sawyer said. "What are you doing?"
"Taking down a banner."
I folded it in half, then in half again, and held it out to Lorna.
"Welcome back," I said. "You can have this."
Lorna's eyes filled. She took it in both hands and looked at Sawyer.
"I didn't ask for any of this," she said. "I only wanted to see you all again."
"I know you didn't, honey," his mother said, and glared at me. "Some people have no manners in their own home."
"It's my home," I said. "I'd like to know who decided to hold a party in it without telling me."
Sawyer crossed the room.
He took my elbow, not hard, and steered me out of the living room and into the hall.
The front door was open. I could hear the lake.
"You've embarrassed my mother in front of the family," he said.
"Your mother put up a banner in my house."
"Lorna has nowhere to go." His jaw was tight. "She's been living in her car. Her brother's lost his job. They're staying here."
"Here."
"In the guest room. Just until they find something."
I laughed. It came out thin.
"Since when?"
He rubbed his face with one hand.
"Since Tuesday," he said. "I said yes on Tuesday."
Tuesday.
Four days ago he had eaten dinner at my table. He had cut Poppy's chicken into small pieces and asked me how art club was going.
He had known the whole time.
Behind him, in the living room, I heard Lorna laugh at something his mother said.
Then I heard her say, quietly, "I'll just go up and put my bag in the blue room."
The blue room was our guest room, and it was the only room in the house with a lock on the inside.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend