Chapter 9: The Robe

Two sheriff's deputies drove me home from the courthouse, in the front seat of a patrol car with a paper order on my lap.

Bea followed in her own car with a locksmith in the passenger seat.

The street was full of neighbors.

I saw people on lawns I had waved at for six years, standing in a loose half circle, holding coffee.

On my front lawn, three suitcases and a garment bag lay on the grass.

Bradley's assistant stood next to them, looking at her shoes.

"Mrs. Alden," a neighbor called. "Is it true? Did you really write that app?"

"Yes," I said.

It was the first time I had said it to anyone who was not paid to listen.

Lacey was standing in my front doorway.

She wore the cream silk robe, belted over a thin dress, and her hair was down.

"The judge said I could have an hour to pack," she said to the older deputy. "It's in the order. I'm pregnant."

"An hour," the deputy said. "It's been forty minutes."

"Then I have twenty."

I walked up the path.

Nobody stopped me.

"Cora," Lacey said, with her eyes already full. "Please. Not like this. I never wanted anything to hurt you."

"I know. You wanted my robe."

I held out my hand.

"It was my grandmother's. The last thing she bought me."

"You're making a scene."

"I'm on my own porch."

A neighbor on the lawn gave a short, embarrassed cough.

Lacey looked at the deputies.

Neither of them looked back.

She untied the belt with fingers that were not quite steady and pulled the silk off her shoulders.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Toasted His Mistress at My Shower, So I Killed His App from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.