Quitting this Family after Being Abandoned for Laughs novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Man at the Curb

I looked down at the text with Declan's arm still across my waist.

He was awake. I had felt him go still when the phone buzzed.

"Colin," he said.

"He's downstairs."

"I'll come with you."

"Stay at the top of the stairs." I slid out from under his arm and found my jeans. "If I want you, I'll say so."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Then I'll be exactly at the top of the stairs," he said.

I went down three flights in his gray coat, which was the only warm thing within reach, with my hair still tangled from his hands.

Colin stood on the pavement outside the green door.

He wore the pressed coat and the warm, easy smile, and he held two paper cups in a cardboard tray.

For eight months that smile had told me everything was fine.

"Tara." He held one cup out. "Oat milk, one sugar. I flew all night."

"How did you find my address?"

"Your company has a very friendly receptionist." He looked at the coat I was wearing, and the smile did not move. "That's a man's coat."

"It is."

"I'm going to pretend that's not what it looks like." He lowered the cup. "I came to say I was wrong."

I waited.

"I was wrong about the tower. I was wrong to laugh. I've thought about nothing else for two weeks." His voice dropped to the soft, reasonable tone he used on waiters and staff. "Your father is a monster, and I never saw it. You saved me, Tara. You swapped the glass for me."

"I swapped it because it was poison."

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