My Fiancé Let Her Ruin Our Wedding but Insisted It Was Just a Joke novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Camel Coat

Conor's mother lived in a white colonial house with black shutters and a wreath on the door in every season.

I had eaten Christmas dinner there nine times.

On Thursday at noon I rang the bell, and she opened it herself, in the camel coat.

"Darcy," she said. "Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for asking."

"Please. Come through."

The front room was full of women.

There were eight of them on the good sofas, in cardigans and pearls, with tea cups on their knees, and I knew most of their faces from her church.

They all looked at me at once.

On the arm of the biggest sofa sat a woman I did not know, in a blazer and a lanyard, holding a clipboard.

"This is a friend from the counseling center," Conor's mother said. "She's here for you."

"For me."

"You've had a terrible month."

"I have."

"We only want to help."

Conor stepped out from the dining room.

He was in a soft grey sweater, with his hair combed and his eyes red, and he had practiced the look.

"Darcy," he said, and his voice cracked. "I'm so glad you came."

"Hello, Conor."

"We love you," he said, to the room as much as to me. "We just want you to get some rest. You've been through a lot. You took the money, and I never said a word, because I knew you weren't yourself."

One of the women put her hand to her throat.

"I took my own money," I said.

"You see?" He turned to the sofa, sadly. "She's still angry. It's all right, babe. Nobody's judging you."

There was a small noise from the bookcase behind him.

I looked up.

Between a row of bound atlases and a china spaniel, a phone sat propped on its side with the lens pointed at my face.

I knew the angle.

The woman with the clipboard cleared her throat.

"Darcy, if you could just sit and tell us how you've been sleeping."

"I sleep fine."

"Any thoughts of hurting yourself?"

"None."

"Any episodes of yelling or breaking things?"

"I yelled once," I said. "At a wedding, with a microphone. It was about forty-six thousand dollars."

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