My Husband's Smart House Only Listens to Her novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Nobody Is Noting This

For a moment the ballroom made no sound at all.

Then somebody in the back row started recording out loud, saying "This is happening," into a phone.

Neil tried one more time.

"Hearth, lights up," he said. "Hearth, end the demo."

"Only the Owner can end the demo," the house said.

He looked at me.

It was the first time in five years I'd seen him without his face arranged.

Underneath it was a small, furious boy who had been told no.

"You enrolled yourself," he said, under the roar. "You can't have."

"I live here," I said, into my mic.

Lia walked to the center of the stage.

She still had the tissue box in her hand.

She stopped next to me, and her fingers were shaking, and I thought she might run.

"Can I?" she asked, and held out her palm for the mic.

I gave it to her.

"Lia," Neil said sharply. "Think carefully about what you're about to do."

"I have," she said. "I've thought about it for three and a half years."

She faced the ballroom.

"My name is Lia Blankenship. I'm Neil's PhD student, and I've been sleeping with him since I was his teaching assistant."

A sound rolled across the seats, half gasp, half laughter.

"I'm the 'caregiver' in his deck. I was supposed to hand Mara this." She held up the tissue box. "On cue sixteen. For the crying."

She dropped it on the stage.

It bounced once and lay there.

"I didn't know about the recording. I swear to God I didn't." She wiped her face with the back of her wrist. "I thought she'd been told. I thought it was a safety thing. I let myself think so, because it was easier, and that's my fault, not hers."

"Lia," Neil said.

"I'm replaceable. It's on slide four. He's got a first-year with a scarf." She looked straight at him. "I wanted to say it in front of the people you needed."

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