The Wife They Burned novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: Mother
Marshall's mother recovered first.
She settled Fallon onto the front pew with both hands.
Then she turned to me, and her face did something I'd watched it do at a hundred hospital galas.
It softened.
"Ada," she said. "Oh, thank God."
She came toward me with her arms out.
I didn't move.
She stopped a foot away, with her arms still half raised, and lowered them.
"There's been a dreadful mistake," she said, loud enough for the back wall. "We were told there'd been a death. We were told it was you. You can't imagine what we've been through."
"Who told you?"
"The authorities."
"Which ones?"
She smiled at me with great patience.
"Darling, it was a terrible night. Things were said."
"Nobody from the fire department called this house," I said. "Nobody from the police. I asked."
At the back of the chapel, beside the last camera, the detective took her hands out of her pockets.
"And nobody from this house called the hospital," I said. "Not to ask if I was alive. Not to ask about the twenty-three people who got out in their pajamas."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of The Wife They Burned are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →
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