The Mistress in the Room novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: An Understanding

Hannah's apartment was a fourth-floor walk-up with a bike in the hall.

I climbed the stairs two at a time and found the door open.

Seth stood in the kitchen with his arms crossed and his jaw tight.

Hannah sat on the sofa with her knees drawn up.

Across from her, on a pair of kitchen chairs, sat three of her friends.

I knew them all.

One had slept in our guest room every Fourth of July since the eighth grade.

One had given Hannah a toast at the dinner about flat-pack furniture.

The third was the emcee, the girl who had held the microphone and said the people who loved Hannah had made something special.

She was crying quietly into a paper towel.

"Mom," Hannah said. "Come in. Close the door."

I closed it.

Nobody offered me a chair, so I stood by the bookcase with my purse still on my shoulder.

"Tell her what you told me," Hannah said.

Nobody spoke.

"Tell her," said Hannah, "or I'll tell her myself, and I'll use your names."

The girl from the Fourth of July wiped her nose.

"Mrs. Lindahl, we knew about Lydia."

"For how long?" I asked.

"Since the spring."

"All of you?"

"Two of us," she said. "Then the other one found out."

I turned my head.

The emcee kept her eyes on the floor.

"Say it," Hannah told her.

"I was at Lydia's baby shower in September," the emcee said. "Mr. Lindahl asked me to come. He said she was a friend of the family."

"A friend of the family," I repeated.

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