My Husband Pretended to Love Me novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Saturday

Lydia came into the diner at noon on Wednesday with a sheriff's deputy and two men in suits.

The lunch rush went quiet, one table at a time.

She wore camel wool and sunglasses, and she held a leather folder against her chest.

"Dolly Schroeder," the deputy said, and held out a paper. "This is a writ of possession. The court has granted the owner immediate access."

"The inspector's order is stayed," Dolly said. "My lawyer filed it."

"This isn't the inspector. This is the lease." One of the suits cleared his throat. "Your landlord assigned the building before the lease renewal. It lapsed on the thirtieth. You have until Saturday at ten in the morning."

"That's four days."

"It's the law, Mrs. Schroeder."

Dolly took the paper and read it slowly, with her glasses on the end of her nose.

Then she folded it in half and set it by the register, next to the pie she had been about to slice.

"You've got a lot of nerve," she said to Lydia, "for somebody who hasn't touched a dish in her life."

Lydia didn't answer.

She wasn't looking at Dolly.

Her eyes kept going to the window, and her sunglasses had slipped, and I saw the skin under them was gray.

Something had happened to her since the foyer.

She shifted her folder to her other arm.

A pale envelope slid out from under her bag and fell to the floor.

Nobody saw it fall but Carl, who was standing next to the pie case with a rag.

He bent and picked it up, glanced at the corner, and went very still.

"Excuse me," he said. "You dropped this."

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