The Unsent Appeal novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Lobby

Dean came on Monday at five to nine.

I saw him through the glass wall of our fourth-floor lobby, in his good blazer.

He was talking to the receptionist with one hand flat on her desk.

I put down my coffee.

Our office sold packaging to grocery chains.

The lobby was a long white room with a plant wall and a bowl of mints.

Nine of my coworkers were drifting toward the elevators with their laptops.

"Rose Dunphy," Dean said, loudly enough for the elevator bank. "There she is."

"Dean. Not here."

"Then where? You stopped answering. Mom has called you all weekend."

"I know how many times she called."

I walked toward him with my hands open.

"We can go to the stairwell," I said.

"No, I want your coworkers to hear this."

He swept a hand at the room.

"My sister stopped paying our mother's mortgage. Just stopped, after eight years."

A coworker at the coffee station looked up.

"She sends our mother money every month," Dean went on, to the whole lobby. "It's what she owes, because of what she did."

"Dean."

"Does anyone here know what she did? She's a felon. She hurt a man, and my family has carried that for eight years."

The lobby had gone quiet.

I could hear the air conditioning.

My throat was tight and my face was hot, and part of me wanted to walk out through the stairwell door.

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