Chapter 17: What Happened in August

Thea's POV

On Thursday, Celia was waiting at a table in the hospital atrium.

She had two paper cups of tea and a smile she must have practiced.

I saw her through the glass from the pharmacy corridor.

I could have turned around.

Instead I went to the coffee cart and told Eileen, who was in line with her badge on a lanyard, exactly where I'd be.

"I'm sitting at the next table," Eileen said. "If she cries, I'm taking notes."

"Don't be rude."

"I'll be rude silently. It's my gift."

Celia stood when she saw me and pushed one of the cups across the table.

"Ginger and honey," she said. "I remembered."

"Thank you."

I did not drink it.

"I won't take much of your lunch," she said. "I only thought you should hear this from me and not from a magazine."

Her voice was gentle, and her hands were folded.

At the next table, Eileen turned a page in a newspaper she wasn't reading.

"In August," Celia said, "after he found out about Caleb, Harrison came to see me."

"I know. You went to his office."

"No. After." She lowered her eyes. "He came to my apartment. Eight nights in a row."

"He would sit on the edge of the bed and not say anything for hours."

The atrium was loud with lunch, and I heard none of it.

"I'm not telling you to hurt you," Celia said. "I'm telling you because you were kind to me."

"I thought he'd come back to us. I let myself think it."

"You're saying he was in your bedroom."

"I'm saying what happened." Her eyes were wet and wide. "I never wanted you to find out from someone else."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Composure After Divorce Became His Greatest Torment from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.