Married In A Heartbeat novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Recording

Darla had a smart speaker on the sideboard, a white cylinder with a little blue light.

"Tobin," I said. "Would you?"

He stood, picked up my phone, and held it to the speaker with a calm I could have kissed him for.

The blue light spun once.

Then my own voice came out of the sideboard, practicing vows to a bathroom mirror.

A click of a door, and then Darla's voice filled the dining room.

"Leanne signs it over after the vows. She'll be too happy to read anything."

Darla, in the flesh, put down her wine glass.

"Turn that off," Colt said.

Tobin did not turn it off.

The recording ran on, and I did not listen to it.

I watched their faces instead.

Colt's went flat and careful.

Darla's went pink at the throat, and she kept her chin up.

My father stopped eating, with his fork halfway to his mouth.

Trista's chair scraped.

She was staring at Colt with her mouth open.

"You told me she knew," she said. "You said it was all worked out, that she was fine with it."

"Trista, sit down."

"You said she'd give us the house as a gift!"

"Trista, be quiet," said Darla.

"Don't tell me to be quiet! You said it was all handled!"

"I handled it for you!" Darla rounded on her. "Everything I did, I did for you and that baby."

"You did it for the house!"

On the recording my father's voice came through, thin and clear.

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