He Hid Me for Twelve Years, Now the City Knows My Name novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Contact Marked R

I read the quote four times before Harrison woke up.

I Only Want Them Both Happy.

I had heard those words twice in two days.

Once in my kitchen, from Lorna's mouth, and once in a headline.

Harrison came out of the bedroom in last night's trousers and stopped when he saw my face.

I held out my phone.

He read the article standing, one hand braced on the doorframe.

"A friend close to the couple," he said slowly.

"Don't."

"I'm not saying it's her."

"You've known her since college. Tell me it's not her voice."

He didn't tell me anything.

The buzzer rang at ten.

Lorna was on the stoop with a bakery bag, a bouquet of white tulips and a stricken face.

"I saw the paper," she said as soon as I opened the door. "Kate, I'm sick about it. They called me for a reaction and I said you were strong and loved and that I wanted you both happy. They twisted every word."

She walked past me into the kitchen and put the tulips in a jar of water.

She had done it so many times in this room that she knew which cabinet.

"I'm sure it was a misunderstanding," I said.

"Thank you for saying so."

"Sit. Eat something."

I poured her coffee and took the chair across from her and watched her butter a croissant.

She was funny about the reporter.

She did the voice again, flat and Midwestern, and Harrison laughed from the doorway despite himself.

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