Was the Heiress Switched at Birth? novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Dinner at Cordelia's

The house on Queens Road had a long gravel drive and a front door the color of dried blood.

Inside, a staircase curved up out of the hall.

Piers had brought me in his car.

"She asked for you at seven," he said, parking under a magnolia.

"Her words were, tell Ms. Odom there is a place at the table."

"Is there?"

"There's a place setting."

"That's different."

"It's what I said," he said, "and she said it was the same."

The dining room held a table for twelve and a chandelier.

Cordelia sat at the head in gray silk with her pearls on.

Annalise sat halfway down on her left, red-eyed in a white sweater, with a glass of water in front of her and nothing else.

Her bob was perfect again.

The place set for me was across from her.

I sat.

A woman in a black dress brought soup.

"Billie," Cordelia said, and the name came out of her slowly, as if it had been kept a long time somewhere cold.

"I am told you were at the Heritage Club."

"I was."

"I am told there was a scene."

"There was a lot of wine."

"I did not throw it," said Annalise to her water.

"No."

"You threw it for the last time."

"Billie," Cordelia said.

I put down my spoon.

"Roland says you've been paying him in board votes since two thousand nine."

The room went still.

The woman in black froze with a basket of rolls.

Cordelia folded her napkin into a perfect square.

"Roland has told you nothing," she said.

"He told me a driver got drunk."

"Eat your soup."

"I'm asking what it was."

"You are in my house."

"And my mother is dying in a bed you pay for," I said.

"Her name is Pris."

"You keep leaving it out."

Annalise lifted her head.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that," she said.

"At least she raised me."

"Did she?" I said.

"She was a very busy woman."

"I think a lot of other people raised you."

Annalise turned white.

"Stop it," she said.

"Get out of my house."

"It was never your house."

"Annalise," Cordelia said.

"Tell her," Annalise said.

Her voice broke clean in two.

"Tell her I live here."

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