The Forgotten Boy by Laura Andersen

Author:Laura Andersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

JULIET

2018

On what was Thanksgiving Day back home, Juliet joined the Bennetts for dinner. Rachel had gone all out researching traditional meals and proudly served mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, and a perfectly roasted turkey.

Rachel made only one apology: “I could not bring myself to make pumpkin pie. Why would anyone want a dessert made out of a squash? You’ll have to make do with sticky toffee pudding.”

Juliet assured her that was no hardship and spent the next two hours playing board games with Antonia, the three little boys, and Noah. He didn’t go so far as to kiss her in front of everyone, but there was enough hand-holding and shared glances going on to make the children giggle and Juliet blush.

Noah had driven her to the farm and gladly accepted her invitation to come in when he returned her to Havencross after dark. There followed an exceptionally pleasant half hour on a squashy sofa in the sitting room across from Juliet’s bedroom—one of the few rooms that held any furniture at all. They only stopped when Juliet’s phone rang.

“It’s my mother,” she said, stretching across him to look at her screen. “And it’s Thanksgiving. I should probably talk to them all.”

He kissed her once more, untangled himself, and stood up. “I’ll see you day after tomorrow. If we’re still on for sightseeing in York?”

She promised, and sighed with a mix of desire and frustration before calling home.

Though she had no siblings, Juliet had a number of aunts, uncles, and cousins on her father’s side of the family who all gathered together on holidays. The phone was passed around from person to person, with Juliet repeating the same few sentences: “Yes, England is lovely.” “Yes, I’m enjoying the house and the work.” “Yes, I plan to return to teaching next year.”

At least everyone in her family was wise enough not to talk about the divorce or Liam. Except, naturally, her mother, who said abruptly, “I saw the photograph online.”

At least Juliet could be assured that this wasn’t a prelude to her being told to “Quit taking half-naked selfies” or questions like “How drunk were you exactly?” But it was even less welcome.

“Duncan,” she said flatly.

“And his student’s new baby. I assume this was the same one he was with when you were in the hospital? Or are there more women to come forward?”

“Mom, did you ever pause to consider that I might not have seen that photo? That you might be telling me something I had no idea about?”

“Oh please, Juliet. I know you much too well. Of course you keep tabs on him online. I’m just glad that you managed to finalize the divorce without changing your mind.”

“Thanks, Mom. Very encouraging, ‘I’m glad my daughter’s only a partly hopeless loser.’”

“Juliet, that man had you pinned like a butterfly to a board for ten years. We didn’t see you most of those years unless he was perched right next to you, watching every move you made and listening to every word you said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.