Old Maid For My Room, Young Maid For His Bed, I Kicked All Three Out novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Dorothea Speaks

Craig lowered his phone slowly.

"Dorothea?" he said, with a little laugh. "Jo, what is this?"

"Erik," I said, "would you take Eli to see the snow in the sunroom?"

Erik stood without a word and lifted Eli onto his hip.

"Is it a game?" Eli whispered.

"It's a grown-up one," Erik said. "We'll watch from the window."

The door closed behind them.

Dorothea stood at the end of the table with her hands folded over her apron.

She was shaking so badly that the carving platter beside her rattled.

"Dorothea," I said. "Tell them what you told me."

She looked at Craig.

Craig looked back at her, pleasantly, with his glass in his hand.

"Go on," he said. "If you've got something to say."

I understood that look.

It was the one he had used on Eli over medicine for years, kindly and without blinking.

Dorothea's chin lifted.

"For four months I've brought Mrs. Granlund a cup of tea at ten every night," she said. "It was not chamomile."

"Oh, Dorothea," said Craig's mother.

"It was a drug that ends pregnancies. Mr. Granlund gave it to me in a bag, the second week I worked here. He told me how much to put in. I wrote it down in a notebook, and I wrote that he was pleased."

Nobody at the table moved.

One of the aunts put her fork down very quietly on her plate.

"I did it last year, too, for her first baby," Dorothea said. "And I did it again this fall."

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend