The Wife He Left Behind novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Her Place at the Table

Cassia's POV

Patricia Reiner's house in Bellevue smelled of sage and money.

I'd sat at her table for six Thanksgivings, and I knew where everything was.

The good china, the cloth napkins in their silver rings, and the long walnut table that seated twelve.

My mother walked in beside me in her quilted vest, with a pumpkin pie in a Tupperware.

"I'm not leaving it in the car," she said. "She'll say it's store-bought."

"It is store-bought."

"Not by me, it isn't."

Stellan sat out front in the truck with the engine off.

He had wanted to come in, and I had said no, because this one I needed to do with the whole table looking at me and no one to lean on.

He'd said, "Leave the door open a crack."

I had.

Patricia met us in the hall in her cream cardigan.

"You're late," she said, and kissed the air next to my cheek. "Joan. How brave of you."

"I brought pie."

"How thoughtful."

She led us in.

Ten people were already standing around the dining room.

Tobias's uncle and aunt, two cousins with their husbands, and a great-aunt in a wheelchair.

Tobias stood at the head of the table with a glass of wine.

He saw me, and the glass stopped halfway up.

Camille was in the kitchen doorway with a gravy boat.

She was in a green dress that stretched over her belly, and she held the boat in front of her with both hands.

Her eyes went to the empty chair at Tobias's right hand.

Then they came to me.

"Cassia," Patricia said, brightly, to the room. "Tobias said you might come. Everyone, you know Cassia."

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