92 Days Before Our Wedding, My Best Friend Won Thanksgiving With My Fiancé novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Landing

Kirk's POV

I was two steps behind Matilda on the stairs, so I saw her back go stiff before I saw the woman.

Kendall's mother stood in front of Matilda's door with a white pastry box held out in both hands.

She was smiling.

I have worked in an emergency room for eleven years, and I know what a smile looks like on a person who has already decided to hurt you.

"Mrs. Devine," Matilda said.

"Lemon bars. Your favorite since freshman year." She lifted the lid. "Kendall told me. Isn't that sweet?"

Matilda didn't take the box.

"Say what you came to say."

"Here? In the hall?"

"Here."

Kendall's mother sighed.

She slid a small white envelope out from under the napkin and tucked it into the gap of the door frame.

"Forty thousand dollars," she said. "A cashier's check. It's enough to cover your mother's flights and whatever that wedding cost you."

"For what?"

"You'll cancel your February plans. And you'll give me the recording my daughter was foolish enough to make on the phone while she was upset."

"She wasn't upset," Matilda said. "She was proud of it."

The smile stayed exactly where it was.

"Kendall was drunk, sweetheart. No judge in this state would listen to a word of it."

"It isn't going to a judge."

"Then where?"

"To the room."

I watched the mother's eyes move.

They went over Matilda's face, then her coat, then me.

"And who is this?"

"Kirk Lanigan," I said.

"A nurse," she said, and her lip curled. "My late husband's cousin sits on your hospital's board. One word, and a man in your position finds himself reassigned to nights in a clinic."

"I'm already on nights, ma'am. Nobody on that board has ever been in a room I was in."

Matilda made a small sound that might have been a laugh.

That was the mistake.

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend