Chapter 21: The Family Table

I carried the shoebox up the back stairs to Margaret's wing at eleven o'clock sharp.

Colin walked one step behind me with his hands at his sides, and he did not touch the box.

The long table was set for twelve again.

Margaret sat at the head in a gray suit with the silver bell by her plate.

Her lawyer sat at her right with a leather folder.

Lindsey stood against the wall behind them in a black dress.

She was not supposed to be there, and nobody had told her to leave.

The aunt in pearls, the two uncles and the cousins were all in their seats, and for once none of them wore the careful smile.

"Kathleen," Margaret said. "You're late."

"It's eleven."

"The family has been seated since ten-thirty."

"Then they've had a nice wait."

I walked the whole length of the table.

The carpet swallowed my shoes.

I stopped at Margaret's place, set the shoebox down on the white cloth beside her bell and took off the lid.

"What is this?" she said.

"Mail."

She looked into the box.

Forty-one cream envelopes lay on their sides, every one of them stamped in red.

"It's addressed to me," I said. "All of it. For fourteen months."

"It was sent back by the foundation's office on your behalf."

"Whose behalf?"

"Yours."

"Then I'd like to read the authorization," I said. "The one I signed."

Margaret said nothing.

I reached into the box and took out the stiff white card with the gold crest.

I laid it flat on the cloth in front of the aunt in pearls.

"Would you read it aloud?" I said. "I'd like the family to hear it."

The aunt looked at Margaret.

Then she put on her glasses.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Waking Up Married To My Crush! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.