He Had Me Drowned, Then Wept at My Grave novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: Irini's Father
Daphne's POV
Anders's sister met us at the Tampa airport in a minivan with a car seat already in it, and took one look at Irini and said, "Oh, there you are."
She was fifty, brisk and freckled, with Anders's pale eyes.
She had been told almost nothing and asked for nothing more.
She took Irini's backpack and her hand.
"Beach house in Clearwater," she said.
"She'll have sand in everything by lunch.
"You two go do what you came for."
Irini looked back once from the van window with her rabbit pressed to the glass.
I had never left her with anyone but the sitter.
I stood on the curb with my hand up until the van turned the corner.
"She'll be all right," Anders said.
"I know," I said.
"You can still cancel."
"I can't," I said.
"I've been dead for five years.
"I think I'd like to see who's been mourning."
It was a Thursday in October, humid and gold, the sky over Tampa Bay the color of brass.
We took a rental car north to Tarpon Springs, with the windows down and the smell of salt and diesel and fried fish blowing through.
I knew every turn.
The sponge docks, the white boats, the blue-trimmed tavernas, the old men playing tavli on the benches, all of it exactly the same.
I hadn't thought it would hurt to see them.
At the foot of the bridge a woman crossed herself as we passed, the right way, and I felt it in my stomach.
We took two rooms at a motel on the highway, under Anders's name.
I'd said I wanted a door with a lock, and he'd said, two doors.
That night at ten, I put on Callie's gray raincoat, which I'd carried from Astoria in a plastic bag for five years, and drove to the Vasilakis house alone.
Anders had wanted to come.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Had Me Drowned, Then Wept at My Grave are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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