One Kiss for My Last Month novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Caught in the Study

Alana grabbed my wrist and turned off the green lamp.

We stood in the dark with the drawer half shut.

The front door opened, and Dad's keys hit the bowl in the hall.

"Mom?" he called. "You up?"

Nobody answered.

His shoes crossed the hardwood, and the light under the study door went from black to gold.

Alana pushed me behind the rolltop desk and stepped out in front of it.

The door swung open.

Dad stood there with his tie pulled loose and a paper cup of coffee in his hand.

"Alana?"

"Hi."

"What are you doing in my mother's study?"

"Looking for a stamp," Alana said.

It was a terrible lie, and she said it in a very small voice.

Dad's eyes went past her to the drawer.

Then to the open blue folder on the desk, which Alana had not had time to close.

The coffee cup hit the carpet and split.

"What is that?"

"Craig, listen."

"What did you take?"

"I didn't take anything."

He crossed the room in three steps and pulled the folder out of her hands.

He read the top page.

I watched the color go out of his face and then come back, redder than before.

"You went through my mother's private files."

"Your daughter's files," Alana said. "With a letter in them that nobody ever showed her mother."

"This is none of your business."

"It's my business when you tell me you've been divorced for two years."

Dad opened his mouth.

He shut it, and I saw him do the arithmetic.

"Who told you that?"

"Your own petition told me. August, Craig. It says August."

"Alana." His voice dropped, sweet and fast, the way it did when he talked to customers. "Sweetheart. It's a technicality. We were separated for years, you know that."

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