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CHAPTER 24: FIVE DAYS
publish date:
2026-11-04 21:45:18
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THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 28: WOULD YOU WANT TO KNOW
"Tuesday lunch," Della said, lifting a plate off the rack. "What did you tell her?" Alden's hands stopped in the water. He had been washing the same frying pan for a while now, round and round, as if it might still produce something. "I said I'd see." "I know. I was cutting fruit about four feet away." She dried the plate and added it to the stack. The window above the sink had steamed up, and the radio was murmuring something about traffic on the ring road. "I'm asking what you're going to tell her." "I haven't decided," he said. "You've had all day," she said. "I know." "Alden." "She was at the head of the table, Del, with Tamsin sat right there, and I couldn't just say no in front of everybody." He lifted the pan out, looked at it, and put it back. "It's one lunch." "It's one lunch she invited you to without asking me," Ansel said. "She did ask. She asked you. You said 'he works.'" "That's not asking. That's me answering for you, and you letting me." She heard how that s
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 27: THE TYPED NO
"Say it to me, Ansel," Nerys said. "Not to her phone." She said it at the gate, with her hand on the latch and her back to him. They had walked the whole of the front path without speaking, her ahead, him behind with Della's foil parcel pressed to his chest like something he'd been asked to guard. He had been writing sentences in his head since the step. None of them had survived. "Say what?" "Anything. When she writes. I want to hear it from you first." She turned round. Her face looked tired, and quite calm. "I'm not asking for your phone. I'd hate that. I don't want to be the wife who has to." "Good, because—" "I'm asking you to tell me. When something comes in. Not later, when you've worked out how to put it. When it arrives." "It was a thank-you, Nerys." "I know it was," Nerys said. "It said it was nice to meet you. Both of you," Ansel said. "Then it'll be easy to show me," Nerys said. "Now?" Ansel asked. "Now." He took the phone out of his pocket and turn
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 26: THE HALLWAY
"Rhian will hear it from me, Marguerite," Nerys said. "After my husband."She said it on the mat, with the bag of croissants still swinging from her fingers and the door at her back. It came out calm, and she was almost proud of that. Behind her, she felt Ansel take half a step forward, the way he did when a waiter got her order wrong."Of course, dear." Marguerite crossed the hall and kissed the air beside Nerys's cheek. She smelled of lily-of-the-valley, and of something sharper underneath. "I only meant it kindly.""I know exactly how you meant it.""Nerys—" Ansel began."It's fine." She didn't look round. "Marguerite's just leaving.""So I am. An hour, wasn't it? How it flies." Marguerite's eyes went past her to Della, who had come out of the kitchen with a tea towel on her shoulder and was very carefully not saying anything. "Thank you for the tea, dear.""Thank you for ringing the bell," said Della.Marguerite went out onto the path. Tamsin followed, with her dish held against h
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 25: THE FOUR KEYS
"Nothing's wrong with it, Mum," Alden said through the door. "We changed it Tuesday." His own voice sounded steady. That surprised him. His heart was going like a washing machine on spin. The letterbox flap clicked shut. A pause, and then the bell again, as though the first ring had only been a rehearsal. He slid the bolt back and opened the door. Marguerite stood on the step in her camel coat, handbag in both hands, wearing a look of mild, patient puzzlement. A pace behind her on the path, Tamsin held a covered dish against her cardigan and kept her eyes on her shoes. "Changed it?" Marguerite said. "On Tuesday?" "Tuesday." "Nobody told me." "You were standing in our hall when Del said it." "Was I?" She laughed softly, at herself. "Oh, I do get in such a muddle. I've been so tired." She looked past him with a small, apologetic smile. Behind him, Della had appeared in the kitchen doorway in her dressing gown, with the spatula in one hand and a smell of burnt batter behind her.
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 24: FIVE DAYS
"Did she phone you too?" Della said it to the back of Alden's head. Her mother had one hand on her car roof and was studying the pavement with great attention. "I'll leave you two to it," her mother said brightly. She got in and started the engine, and she pulled away from the kerb with a wave that lasted a few seconds longer than a wave needs to. The tail lights shrank to the end of the road and turned left. Alden turned round on the step. He looked like someone who'd been asked to read out his own school report. "Marguerite," Della said. "Mum says she's been on the phone since Tuesday. In tears, about the lock. Did she ring you?" "Yeah," Alden said. "How often?" Della asked. "Most days," Alden said. "Most." "Every day." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. And this morning, while you were in the shower." "That's five days, Alden," Della said. "I said no every time," Alden said. "Come inside." She held the door for him, and
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 23: THE LAMB
"Last Sunday was Marguerite's," Della's mother said, before Alden had even got his door open. "I counted." She said it through the car window, to the windscreen in general, and then she stepped back so they could climb out. Alden unfolded himself onto the pavement. Della was already round the bonnet with her hand out for the tin. "Mum, what are you doing here?" "Standing on your step, darling, for forty minutes." Her mother held the tin back, just out of reach. "Your neighbour says you're always out. I've had a very full chat about her hip." "We were at the park," Alden said. "I rang and rang." She handed over the tin as if it were a hostage. "It's a lemon drizzle. For your trouble." "What trouble?" Alden asked. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Alden locked the car, slowly, to give himself something to do. He liked Della's mother. He'd decided that at the engagement party, when she'd cornered him by the buffet and told him in great detail what she thought of his tie. She was lou
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