Chapter 7 - THE VISITOR AT MIDNIGHT
The knock at the door came at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday.
It was a soft,
hesitant sound,
not the confident rap of a friend.
I looked through the peephole and saw Aiden standing on the porch.
He looked terrible.
He was wearing the same suit he had worn to court,
now wrinkled and stained.
He hadn't shaved in days,
and his eyes were bloodshot.
I didn't open the door.
"What do you want,
Aiden?"
I asked through the wood.
"Alice,
please,"
he croaked.
"Just let me talk to you for five minutes."
"I'm so sorry."
"I didn't know what I was doing."
"She manipulated me,
Alice."
"Madeline... she was the one who suggested the offshore accounts."
"She's the one who destroyed us."
I leaned my forehead against the door,
closing my eyes.
"No,
Aiden."
"You destroyed us."
"You were the one who broke the vows."
"You were the one who lied to my face while I was carrying your child."
"Go away,
Aiden."
"There's nothing left for you here."
"I have nowhere else to go!"
he shouted,
his voice cracking with desperation.
"My family won't talk to me."
"My friends are gone."
"I have no money."
"Please,
just let me stay in the guest room until I figure things out."
I felt a surge of cold,
hard anger.
He wanted to come back into the house he had tried to steal?
He wanted me to care for him after he had abandoned me?
"You should have thought about that when you were signing those wire transfers,"
I said.
"If you stay on this porch,
I'm calling the police."
"You're a stranger to me now."
I heard him sob,
a pathetic,
hollow sound.
Then I heard his footsteps fading as he walked down the driveway.
I went back to the nursery and sat in the rocking chair.
My heart was beating fast,
but I wasn't afraid.
I was firm.
The woman who would have let him in,
who would have forgiven him just to avoid the conflict,
was gone.
She had died the moment I saw him holding Madeline's hand.
The woman who lived here now was a mother.
And a mother protects her nest.
I stayed in the chair until the sun began to rise,
watching the shadows retreat from the corners of the room.
May you like
The night was over.
The ghost was gone.
