BOOK 5 PART TWO

‘Nobody ever mentions little Michael’s father,’ Bella said into the thick silence that followed Lynne’s departure. ‘We think he must be dead.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Cliff said, then looked at Louisa. ‘Truly sorry.’

‘Not me you should apologize to,’ she growled, but when he began to rise, to offer his apology where he knew it was needed, she barked at him: to sit back down and eat. ‘Leave the girl alone. You’ve done enough damage for one night.’

He shoved his food around his plate until Louisa took it from him and replaced it with a slice of lemon meringue pie that quivered from the force of her slamming it before him.

He took a bite. It tasted like glue in his mouth. He ate half of it before setting it aside and drinking the coffee the housekeeper poured.

Then, with the other tenants busy doing whatever old ladies did in the evening, he took himself away from the scene of his stupidity, and walked for hours re-exploring the neighborhood he had once explored with Lynne at his side. As he s