He Gave Her My Home, So I Took Back My Life novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Tenth Time
At the party on her own lawn, Graham announces that Kittredge House now belongs to his brother's widow and sends Nora to a hotel; she sends the caterers home instead, and he tells her she signed it herself.
At seven o'clock, forty guests stood on my lawn with champagne in their hands, and my husband tapped a spoon against his glass.
"Friends," Graham said. "Before we eat, I have an announcement."
He stood on the porch steps of Kittredge House, the house my grandmother left me.
One arm was around Delphine's waist.
She is the widow of Graham's brother.
She wore a cream dress and held her little boy on her hip, and he was asleep with his mouth open against her shoulder.
I stood on the grass at the bottom of the steps.
My overnight bag was still in the front hall where I had left it.
Two hours earlier, Graham had found me in the kitchen and put his hands on my shoulders.
"Just tonight, Nor. The campaign people want the house to look like a family lives here."
"I live here," I said.
"The boy needs a complete home. It's one night."
It was the tenth night.
I had counted, even if he hadn't.
"I booked you the corner room at the Harbor Inn," he said. "Delphine already packed your bag so you wouldn't have to."
She had.
She had put in my toothbrush, my phone charger and the good pajamas, and she had written a note on top: Sorry again, N. I owe you so much.
I had thanked her, because it was kind.
Then Graham glanced out the window at the carriage house at the end of the drive, where a light was on.
"And call the lawyer about the tenant. I want that lease ended by the first."
"He pays on time. By money order, every month, since Gran."
"You've never even met him."
"That's why it's never been a problem."
Graham smiled and kissed my forehead and went to find his tie.
Now, on the steps, he lifted his glass higher.
"Kittredge House has been waiting a long time for a child's footsteps," he said. "So as of this week, it belongs to Delphine and Teddy. Nobody in this family will ever be without a roof again."
The lawn clapped.
It clapped politely at first, and then louder, because a man running for state senate had just given a house to a widow and her son.
Nobody looked at me.
Then a few people did, quickly, and looked away.
"Oh, Nora," a woman in pearls said beside me. "How generous of you."
I had not been told.
I had not been asked.
I looked up the steps.
Delphine had gone pink to her hairline.
"Graham," she said, low, but I heard it. "You said we'd tell her first."
She came down two steps, shifting Teddy higher on her hip.
"Nora, I didn't know he'd say it tonight. I swear I didn't. Here, take my wrap, it's getting cold."
She held it out with her free hand.
It was a soft gray wrap, and it smelled like her vanilla soap.
I did not take it.
The head of the catering crew stood at the edge of the lawn with a tray of crab puffs, waiting for a sign from someone.
I walked over to her.
My card was on that contract, because Graham's had been declined in September and he had said it was a bank mistake.
"I'm the client," I said. "Please stop serving."
"Stop?"
"Close the bar. Pack up the food. Thank you for the work, I'll pay the full amount."
She looked past me at the porch.
Then she lifted a hand, and her crew began to cover the trays.
The bartender took the champagne bottle out of a guest's hand, politely, and put it back in the ice.
Graham came down the steps fast.
"Nora. Don't do this in front of people."
"You did it in front of people."
I turned to the lawn.
"Thank you all for coming," I said. "The party is over. This is my house, and I'd like you to leave it."
Forty people stood very still with their empty hands.
Then the woman in pearls was the first to find her car keys.
Graham's face stayed pleasant until the last taillights reached the end of the drive.
Then he took my elbow and walked me to the side of the porch where the porch light didn't reach.
"It isn't your house, Nor," he said quietly. "Not since March."
"I never signed anything."
"The roof insurance form. You signed it at the kitchen table while you were grading."
He held his phone in front of my face.
It showed a photograph of a document with three pages fanned out on a table.
The top of the first page said: Deed of Transfer.
At the bottom of the third page, in blue ink, was the signature I have written ten thousand times on report cards.
It was mine.
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