The Silence Between Us: A Vow to Return novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Who Asked for Her

Room Four was dim and cold, with a monitor beeping steadily over the bed.

Harold lay propped on three pillows in a thin blue gown.

His hair, which I had never seen out of place, was flat against his head, and a tube ran under his nose.

He looked old.

Margaret sat on one side of the bed with her coat still on, and Nathan stood at the foot with his arms crossed over his chest.

Harold's eyes found me in the doorway.

"Hannah," he said. His voice was a rasp. "Come here, my dear."

I crossed the room and stood by the rail.

"They told me to rest," he said. "I told them I'd rest when I'd said something."

"Dad," Nathan said. "Not now."

"Be quiet, Nathan."

His son went quiet.

Harold looked at me for a long moment.

"You came in a red dress to my dinner," he said.

"Yes."

"And you walked across a room and took a chair my office had given away."

"I did."

"I've watched people for fifty years." His mouth twitched. "Nobody in that ballroom did what you did. Not my wife. Not my son. Not me."

"Harold," Margaret said, very low.

"I'm getting to it, Margaret."

His fingers moved on the blanket.

Two of them tapped, once, twice.

"I made the boy keep a promise he should never have been asked for," Harold said. "I told him it was only until the dinner. I thought it would be easy. I'm a man who plans things."

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