Desperate Housewife? No, I'm Billion-Dollar Revenge novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Sunday Dinners at Forty-Five Dollars

Phyllis Harlan lived in a brick ranch house in Kettering with a ceramic goose on the porch.

Rafe drove me there himself, because I asked him to, and parked across the street.

"Do you want me to come in?" he said.

"No. If you come in, it's about you."

"All right."

"If I'm not out in ten minutes, come in."

"I'll give you twenty," he said. "You'll want twenty."

I took two envelopes from my bag and crossed the street.

Through the front window I could see a dining room with a long table, a lace cloth and eight women with their coffee cups. It was her Thursday brunch for the women's circle at church.

I rang the bell.

Phyllis opened the door and her whole face went through three expressions.

"Claire. Dear. This is not a good time."

"I'm here for Hazel."

"She's resting. She's fine. We've had a lovely morning."

"I'm sure." I stepped past her. "I'll say hello to your guests first."

The women looked up when I came in. I knew most of them. I had cooked for half of them at one point or another.

There was a playpen in the corner by the sideboard. Hazel was in it, awake, with her fist in her mouth.

I picked her up. She smelled of someone else's laundry soap, and she looked at me and started to cry.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," I said, to the room. "I'm Dean's wife. I won't take long."

"Claire, please," Phyllis said behind me.

"Phyllis sent me an invoice at the hospital," I said. "I'd like to read it, so everyone knows what I owe."

Nobody breathed. A spoon touched a saucer.

I took the page from my envelope and held it out in front of me.

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