Todos os capítulos de Too Late: She Is Gone With Your Baby: Capítulo 171 - Capítulo 180

Chapter 171. Two ChairsJULIANThere were two small plastic chairs at the back of Eli's classroom with paper name cards on them. One said JULES in purple pen. One said ADRIAN in green.Eli had made them himself. Mrs. Chen told me at the door. "He wanted to do it. He asked for two cards. He spent ages on the letters."I stood in the doorway and looked at the two chairs side by side.I'd been awake since four. I'd told myself I was fine with this. I'd told Eli on Tuesday that of course Adrian could come. I'd meant it. I still had to stand there for a minute before I could walk in.Adrian was early.Of course he was early. He'd flown in the night before. He'd stayed in a hotel ten minutes from the school. He told me later he'd walked past the school gate twice at seven in the morning just to check where it was.He came into the classroom at five to nine in a dark jumper instead of a suit. No tie. He looked like a man who'd been told dress normal and had to look up wha

Chapter 173. Before the EndARIAI saw him in the second half. The church hall on Mercer Street holds about ninety people if they squash. Wooden chairs. A radiator that bangs in the slow movements. A tea urn at the back that the vicar's wife won't unplug, because, she says, people get thirsty.He was by the tea urn.Last row. Far end. Coat still on. He'd come in after the interval while the lights were down, the way he did in the Meridian, the way he did the Thursday before Webb.I saw him because I always see the back row. I can't help it. It's where the people sit who don't want to be seen.I missed nothing. Not one note. Adaeze said afterwards she didn't even notice me notice. But my chest went tight and stayed tight for forty minutes.Vivian was on piano.Her first concert with us. She'd been rehearsing for two weeks. She sat at the old upright with her back very straight and her hair pinned up and played like she'd been here five years.In the third pi

Chapter 175. Keep Playing.ADRIANI called the board meeting for a Monday. Twelve people round the long table on the top floor. The same table I'd sat at the morning I heard Elena had resigned. The same view of the city behind me.I didn't sit at the head.I sat halfway down, between finance and legal. People noticed. Nobody said anything. Ethan was at the end, by the door, with his tablet, like always. "I'm stepping back," I said.The room went quiet."Not leaving. Not selling. Stepping back. From the day-to-day. From running everything myself." I looked round the table. "For eight years I've made every decision in this building. For five of them I made them badly. I signed things I didn't read. I let things happen that I didn't see. You all know what I mean. Some of you have been carrying it."Nobody looked at me. A few people looked at the table."I need someone who sees things," I said. "Someone who reads every line. Someone who sat in a hospital corridor at two

Chapter 177.The Way HomeARIAThe Meridian smelled exactly the same.Wood polish. Old velvet. Something under it, like dust and heat from the lights. I walked in through the stage door at four in the afternoon and stopped dead in the corridor, because my body remembered it before I did.The bench was still there. Outside the dressing rooms. The one where Adrian sat in the morning and told me the third piece was the best. I put my hand on the back of it."You alright?" Adaeze said behind me."No.""Good," she said. "You always play better when you're not." I'd been nervous for a week. Not about the music. The music was ready. We'd run the programme every morning for a month. Vivian was on piano and she was perfect. Better than perfect. She'd stopped looking at me for approval somewhere in the second week and started just playing.I was nervous about the city. The last time I'd been here, I'd left with two boxes in the boot of a hire car and a man stan

Chapter 179. No CardVIVIANAva had a clipboard.I didn't know people still owned clipboards. She'd bought it specially. Pale blue. With a pen on a little string so she couldn't lose it. "Chairs," she said, standing in the middle of the church hall on Mercer Street at eight in the morning. "We need sixty. We have forty-two. Where are the other eighteen?""The vicar's wife has them," I said."Why does the vicar's wife have them?""She's hostage-taking. She wants the tea urn on."Ava wrote something on the clipboard. She underlined it twice."Fine," she said. "The tea urn stays on. Get me my chairs."I've known Ava for four months. I've loved her for three. I've never been more frightened of her than I was that week. The wedding was in nine days. Aria didn't want anything big. She'd said so in the first meeting, sitting on the floor of the studio with her knees up and Eli asleep with his head on her lap."Small," she said. "The church hall. People wh