My Wife's Last Call I Never Answered novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Dorothea

I found them in the courtyard behind the staff housing, on a bench under a bare tree.

My mother had her navy coat buttoned to the chin and her suitcase beside her on the gravel.

She was holding both of Clara's hands.

I had never seen my mother hold anyone's hands.

"Mom," I said.

She did not turn her head.

"Sit down, Hayes," she said. "No. Stand there. You can stand."

Clara had a paper cup of coffee on the bench beside her and had not touched it.

She looked past my shoulder at the parking lot.

"Rory called me from the airport," my mother said. "He told me everything he knew, which was not everything, but it was enough. I got in a car and came straight here, because I thought one of us ought to say sorry to your wife before you tried."

"I was going to."

"You haven't."

I opened my mouth to say that I was sorry.

Clara got there first.

"Please don't," she said. "Not here, and not like that."

She said it quietly.

"The baby," I started.

"Don't use the baby to begin a conversation."

I shut my mouth.

My mother's grip tightened around Clara's fingers, and I saw her jaw working.

"I'm going to tell you what I want," Clara said. "You can answer or not. Dorothea is here because I asked her to stay."

"I'm listening."

"First." She put one finger up. "My father's money. A hundred and ninety thousand dollars, paid back tenfold, as you promised at his kitchen table. I don't want it. He does, and he's earned it. He is sixty-eight and he fixes watches for a living."

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