The Widow's Fate They Chose Was My Escape Plan novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Her Mother's Pearls

Lunch was served in the Keane dining room with the whole family gathered at the table.

Desmond had Rory carried down in the chair, so the family could see him.

Rory sat at the head with a blanket over his knees and his chin on his chest.

A Keane lawyer sat at one end, and two Keane cousins sat across from Bennett.

Every one of them watched me.

Bridget sat on my left, in lemon yellow, with my mother's pearls at her throat.

She touched them every time she spoke.

"I'm so glad we came, Willa," she said. "Conrad worried you'd be lonely."

"I haven't had time."

"I only borrowed these." She smiled and touched the clasp. "You left them behind, and I thought they would be safer with family."

"You are family," Bennett said, from across the table. "We're all family."

He did not look at me when he said it.

I put down my fork.

"Bridget," I said. "Stand up."

She blinked.

"What?"

"Please stand up and turn around."

The whole table went quiet.

Desmond folded his hands and watched with interest.

Bridget glanced at him, then at Bennett.

"Willa, you're making a scene," she whispered.

"I'm making a request."

I stood and walked around the back of her chair.

My hands did not shake.

I found the little gold clasp under her curls and opened it.

"Willa!"

The pearls slid into my palm, warm from her skin.

"These were my mother's," I said, to the table, to the lawyer, to the cousins and to everyone listening. "She left them to me in her will. A brother saying yes to a sister is not a will."

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