While He Built Her Home novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Not a Vitamin

On Tuesday I went back to the old shop on Alder Street to empty my desk.

Phoebe was on the sidewalk loading the last display tables into Clayton's flatbed.

I took the back office alone.

The desk was oak, bought at an estate sale seven years ago.

Its left drawer always stuck.

I pulled it open with both hands.

Inside were my reading glasses, three dead pens and the receipt for my first lease.

At the very back was a small white bottle with a pharmacy label.

I had put it there on the day Brynn boxed up the rest of my medication.

It was the last dose I had been taking at work, in case I forgot at home.

I held it up to the window and rattled it.

Brynn had given it to me four years ago, the week of my first appointment at the fertility clinic.

"Take one every morning," she had said.

"The doctor told you the supplement helps. My pharmacist can get it cheaper if I order it with mine."

Four years of mornings.

I looked at the label for the first time.

It was printed in small black letters, and a strip of clear tape ran across the middle of it.

I couldn't read what the tape was covering.

I put the bottle in my coat pocket and told Phoebe I had an appointment.

The fertility clinic's front desk didn't have a line.

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