He Hid Me Twelve Years and Paraded Her, So I Quit Both novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: A Phone on the Kitchen Table

Nell's POV

On Saturday morning Bea put a plate of eggs in front of me and sat down without one of her own.

"I have to tell you something before tonight," she said.

"Bea, you don't have to."

"I do. If I don't, I'll say it in the car and cry on Walter's good jacket. Eat."

I ate.

She turned her ring finger around and around, though she had never worn a ring on it.

"The first year you were with Everett, Walter asked me to find out who the girl was," she said.

"And you found my address."

"The studio on Damen with the broken radiator." She nodded. "I gave it to him. That December he sent you a wool blanket, with a card that said Welcome to the family."

I put my fork down.

"I never got a blanket."

"I know that now." Her eyes were wet. "He sent one the next December, and the next. But you'd moved into Everett's building by then."

"The doorman."

"The doorman took every package up to the penthouse. Everett signed for them and sent them to a shelter, and he never said a word."

I tried to answer, and my voice did not come.

"Eleven blankets," Bea said. "That's why I kept copies of everything Walter sent you. I couldn't prove what Everett was doing."

"You told Walter where I lived."

"And I never told you I had. By the time I thought of it, it had been twelve years."

I came around the table, and she stood, and we held each other until the eggs went cold.

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