Reborn: I Let My Mother Suffer the Price of Her Favoritism novel · Chapter 9 of 32
Chapter 9: The Housekeeper's Kitchen
We reached Alder Lane at seven on Sunday morning.
Mom's car was gone from the driveway, and so was Dale's.
"Eight o'clock service," I said. "She never misses it. Not even with a sling."
Everett parked at the curb and cut the engine.
He had left Sloane at the hotel with his mother and the driver, and a note from me on her pillow saying I would be back by noon.
The housekeeper opened the kitchen door before we knocked.
She was in her robe with her hair down, and she looked as though she had not slept either.
"I thought you'd come," she said.
The kitchen smelled of coffee.
She poured two cups without asking and set them on the table, and we sat.
She did not sit down.
She stood at the sink with her back to us and her hands on the edge of the basin.
"I've worked here twelve years," she said. "Your father hired me the winter before he died."
"I remember."
"Then your mother brought home that little girl, and I watched the house go quiet." She turned. "Sloane was eleven. She was shy. She used to follow me around the kitchen asking what each spice was."
I had forgotten that.
I had forgotten that Sloane was ever small.
"It was the second winter when I first saw it," the housekeeper said. "Your mother carrying the cup up at ten. She'd stand in the door and wait. Within the hour the child would be screaming."
"Every time?" Everett asked.
"Not every time. Only when Callie was home." She looked at me. "And your mother always knew when you'd be home."
My mouth went dry.
"What do you mean, she knew?"
"She wrote it down," the housekeeper said.
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