Her 20-Year Silence Ended When Her Daughter Came Back for Revenge novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Gannet Quay

On Friday night the driver parked outside a bar called the Gull and Anchor and went in carrying a plain white envelope.

Rhys and I watched from his car across the quay.

I had borrowed a coat from the kitchen and tied my hair under a scarf.

"You're sure you want to go in?" Rhys asked.

"I grew up three streets from here. Nobody will look at me."

"I'll look at you."

I glanced at him.

He stared at the windshield.

"Rule two," I said.

"It's a rule about touching."

The driver came out two minutes later with empty hands and drove off.

We crossed the quay in the rain.

The Gull and Anchor was a low room with a bar of black wood and six men who looked up when the door opened and looked down again.

At the far table sat a man alone, with a cup of tea and a bad cough.

He was old, with a gray beard yellowed at the mouth, and a thick envelope lay on the table in front of him, unopened.

I sat down across from him.

Rhys stayed standing behind my shoulder.

"You're not one of Mrs. Mercer's boys," the old man said.

"No."

"Then you're lost, miss."

"Maybe."

I pulled the chain out of my collar and laid the ring on the wood between us.

His cup stopped halfway to his mouth.

For a long moment he did not do anything at all.

Then he put the cup down, and tea slopped onto the table.

"That's a Lorrimer heron," he said.

"Do you know where it came from?"

"I know exactly where it came from."

He leaned forward and looked at me, at my eyes, and the lines in his face loosened.

"You're the crate girl."

Behind me, Rhys went still.

"I carried you down the gangway myself," the old man said. "You were two years old and you didn't make a sound. I thought you were dead till you grabbed my beard. Your mother had paid me everything she had saved. Two years of pit wages. She said, take her where nobody will look, and leave her where somebody will be kind."

← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →

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