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CHAPTER 26: THE HALLWAY
公開日:
2026-11-05 15:47:35
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THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 30: TEN MINUTES
"Ten minutes, Tamsin," Alden said. "Then I'm back at my desk."He said it on the pavement outside the revolving doors, with the sun in his eyes and the lunchtime crowd flowing round them. He hadn't wanted to stay in the lobby. The receptionist had been polite and had listened to every word, and the grey sofa under the rubber plant was still dented where his mother had sat."Ten," Tamsin said. "I promise. I'll watch the clock.""There's a place over the road. The one with the green awning.""Is it expensive?""It's a sandwich place, Tamsin."It had four tables and a fridge of fizzy drinks, and a man behind the counter who wiped the same bit of steel over and over. Alden bought two teas. She tried to pay for hers, going pink, and he waved her purse away. She wrapped both hands round the mug and held it under her chin like a hot-water bottle."What's happened?" he said."Nothing. That's what's so awful." She looked into the tea. "She hasn't rung. She always rings at eight. Every night si
THE DAMAGE WE CALL LOVE CHAPTER 29: THE PACK
"Just one lunch, Alden," Marguerite said. "Tamsin's already shopping."She said it in the lobby at half past one, in a voice pitched to carry exactly as far as him and no farther. She sat on the low grey sofa under the rubber plant with her handbag on her knees and a Tupperware box beside her, and she smiled up as though he were eight and she'd come to collect him from school.He had come down the stairs two at a time. The receptionist had rung up to say there was a lady here for him, who said she was his mother, and his body had been on the third step before his brain caught up."Mum." He kept his voice low. "What are you doing here?""I brought you a slice of cake. You've gone thin." She patted the box. "And I was passing.""You weren't passing. It's the other side of town.""Then I was passing with intent." She said it fondly, with a small, unrepentant tilt of the head. "Sit down, darling. You're looming.""I can't. I've got a meeting at two.""Then stand and listen. She's bought a
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.
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