Stepping-Stone for Mia novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: My Mother
I didn't take it.
"How long have you been sitting here?"
"Since six." She lowered the case a little. "Your neighbor offered me milk."
"She does that."
My mother looked smaller on my landing than she'd ever looked in her own house.
She'd worn flat shoes. I'd never seen her in flat shoes.
"May I come in?"
"You know what I said at dinner."
"Yes." She held the case against her chest. "I've been practicing."
I waited.
She took a breath.
"Kelly Beal," she said. "Her name was Kelly Beal. She was twenty-nine. She was asking for Mia."
Her voice cracked on the last word, and she kept going anyway.
"She was asking for Mia, and I knew it on the Sunday you told us, and I asked you to carry it. I asked you because you always had. I've been asking you since you were seven."
I unlocked the door.
"Come in," I said.
She sat in one of my two chairs, at my little table.
She looked around at the apartment like she'd never seen it, because she hadn't. She'd never once visited.
I made tea. I didn't ask how she took it. I knew.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Stepping-Stone for Mia are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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