I Was His Waiting Room novel · Chapter 30 of 32
Chapter 30: Christmas Eve
I wore the green dress.
Kerry had made me buy it at the outlet in Wrentham.
She stood outside the fitting room saying "turn" until I threatened her with a hanger.
Niall picked me up at five with Juniper in the back seat of the pickup.
She wore a red bow on her collar that my mother had tied.
"She's coming?" I said.
"Mam said bring the dog."
"Your mother said that."
"In writing. On the index card. I read it upside down."
The white house in Milton had candles in every window.
The ramp was still there, running down from the front door to the drive. Somebody had wound a garland of pine down its rail.
Inside it was loud with aunts and cousins.
A football game was on in another room, and three men were arguing about it at the top of their lungs.
Brendan came out of the kitchen in an apron that said KISS THE COOK, holding a ladle.
"Don't," he said, before I could.
"I wasn't going to."
"Kerry gave it to me. I'm wearing it out of fear."
The table for fourteen was set for fifteen.
There was a card at every place in neat black handwriting. Mine said MAURA, and it was between Niall's and his mother's.
Juniper had a place too. A folded blanket on the floor by my chair, with her own card on it.
Niall's mother stood at the head of the table in her pearls.
She didn't sit down when everyone else did.
She had an index card in her hand. I could see where it had gone soft at the corners from being held.
The room went quiet. Even the cousins.
"I wrote it down," she said, "because if I didn't, I'd say it wrong."
She looked at the card. Then she didn't.
"In October, in my office, I told you that you had your legs. Like that meant you owed us something. Like whatever had been done to you didn't count, because something worse had been done to someone else."
Her voice shook. She kept going.
"For three years I let that girl tell me what this family owed her, because I was too ashamed of my son to check. And when somebody finally checked, I said it was you who should be quiet."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of I Was His Waiting Room are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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