The Professor's Captive Wife novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Last Letter
At nine o'clock on Christmas Eve I sat at the kitchen table in my socks with the cream envelope in front of me, still sealed.
The tree in the front room was the crooked one Faye had sold us off the café van.
The kitchen smelled of orange peel and the gingerbread I'd burned on purpose, because he liked the edges.
Eliot came in from the hall.
He'd put on a tie.
I stared at it.
"It's Christmas," he said defensively.
"You're wearing a tie to read me a letter in our own kitchen."
"I'm not reading it." He picked up the envelope and broke the seal and took out three folded sheets. "I'm saying it. These are in case I forget a word."
He put the sheets face down on the table in front of me.
Then he stood at the end of the table, exactly where my laptop had been in February, and put his hands in his pockets.
Then he took them out again.
"I've never been this frightened in a classroom," he said.
"You're not in a classroom."
"That's the problem." He took a breath. "All right."
He looked at me.
"My father never said one kind word to my mother in thirty-one years," he said. "He wasn't cruel. He was quiet. I used to think quiet was the same thing as safe. It was only the easiest thing I knew how to do."
I didn't move.
"My mother used to set two places at the table and eat across from a man reading the paper." His mouth twisted. "I swore I'd never do that to anyone. Then I did it to you for two years."
The fridge hummed.
Somewhere outside, a car went by slowly through the snow.
"So here is what changes," he said. "If anyone tells me something about you, I bring it to you the same day, at this table, out loud, however ugly it is. And I never write you a word I can't say to your face."
He stopped.
His jaw worked.
I watched his hand move toward the face-down pages.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Professor's Captive Wife are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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