Chapter 10: The Agency

"I'm the one who sat up with you every night you had a fever," I said.

My voice shook, and I let it.

"I'm the one who taught you to tie your shoes. I'm your mom, Linus. Nobody gets to take that away."

He opened his mouth.

Then Keegan caught him by the arm and pulled him back from the window.

"That's enough," Keegan said, and walked him away across the parking lot.

Linus looked over his shoulder the whole way.

At ten the next morning I walked into the Winslow Agency on Main Street with a cane and Abel beside me.

The waiting room had a plush gray sofa, a coffee machine, and two couples in good coats signing papers.

The receptionist stood up so fast her chair rolled into the wall.

"Mrs. Winslow! We heard you were on the news."

"I'm here to see my husband," I said.

Keegan came out of his office with a pen in his hand.

He stopped when he saw Abel.

"Cora, not here. Come into my office."

"No."

The clients looked up.

"I'd like to ask you something where everyone can hear it," I said. "You won't want to answer it, and I'd like a witness."

"Cora."

"Is Linus yours and Imogen Rask's?"

The pen stopped moving.

The older of the two clients, a man with a gray mustache, slowly put down his coffee.

"Where did you hear that?" Keegan whispered.

"From her. At two in the morning. In my hospital room."

"She said that to you? She had no right."

"Is it true?"

He looked at the receptionist, the clients, and the door, in that order.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Died the Day My Husband's Girlfriend Did a Magic Trick from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.