The Wife They Burned novel · Chapter 21 of 32
Chapter 21: Memorial
I didn't wash my hair.
When the nurse offered to help me shampoo it Sunday morning, I said no thank you.
She looked at me.
It smelled like smoke from the roots to the ends.
I put it up.
Everything I owned had burned except what I'd been wearing, and that had been cut off me in the ambulance.
One of the night nurses lent me a plain black dress that was an inch too long.
Joy lent me her own black cardigan, which came down to my knees.
"You look like a widow in a hand-me-down," she said, from her wheelchair.
"That's the idea."
"I'm coming."
"Joy, your ankle."
"I've got two wheels and a grudge," she said. "I'm coming."
The detective called at one.
"I'll be at the back of the chapel," she said. "I'm not there for you. I'm there because a house burned down with twenty-five people in it, and I'd like to see the faces of the people who were sure who died."
"Don't thank me. Just don't hit anybody."
Abel drove us.
He'd rented a van with a ramp for Joy's chair.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Wife They Burned are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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