Chapter 8: Dinner for Three
Hannah was already in the kitchen when they came through the door.
She looked at her daughter, then at Adrian Moretti standing one step behind her, and her expression moved through three things very quickly — alarm, confusion, and then something she could not quite close off in time.
"She found a beetle," Adrian said.
"She always finds something." Hannah looked at Ellie.
"You were supposed to stay in the sitting room."
"The beetle needed help."
"The beetle—" Hannah stopped.
She looked at Adrian again.
"I'm sorry.
She gets out when I'm on the phone.
I should have—"
"Mrs.
Carter." Adrian pulled out the chair at the head of the kitchen table and sat down in it, which was not where he normally sat, because he did not normally sit in the kitchen at all.
"Ellie has invited me to dinner.
I've accepted."
Hannah stared at him.
Rosa, at the stove, made no expression whatsoever, which meant she was very carefully making no expression.
"She invited you," Hannah repeated.
"So we don't eat alone," Ellie confirmed, climbing into her usual chair.
"Rosa, is the soup ready?"
"Five minutes," Rosa said.
Hannah stood in the middle of the kitchen for a moment.
Then she sat down.
---
The soup was potato and leek.
Rosa set four bowls on the table and then, after a brief internal debate that showed only in the slight pause before she sat, joined them.
Ellie ate with focus and purpose, occasionally reporting facts about beetles to no one in particular.
Rosa refilled the bread basket.
Hannah watched Adrian Moretti eat soup in her kitchen and tried to find the version of reality in which this made sense.
"Mr.
Moretti," she said carefully.
"I want to thank you.
For the EpiPens.
And the note.
I didn't—" She stopped.
"I don't have the right words."
"You don't need them."
"I do, actually." She kept her voice steady.
"We've been managing on very little for two years.
I know how to accept help when it's offered plainly.
But I want you to know that I'm not — that Ellie and I aren't—" She looked at her hands.
"We're not a charity case."
"I know that."
"I just want to be clear."
"Mrs.
Carter." Adrian set down his spoon.
"Your daughter saved my life because she was taught that when someone needs help, you help them.
That is not the behavior of people who need to be managed or pitied.
It is the behavior of people who deserve better than they've been given." He picked up his spoon again.
"I intend to correct the imbalance.
That is all."
Hannah looked at him for a long moment.
"She also told you that we'd have to give something back."
"She offered dinner."
"Of course she did." Hannah looked at Ellie, who was explaining to Rosa that beetles probably preferred leek soup to potato.
"She's been negotiating since she could talk."
"She gets it from somewhere."
Hannah almost smiled.
"Her father.
He could talk his way into and out of anything." The almost-smile held for a moment, then softened into something quieter.
"He would have liked you.
He had no patience for people who made things complicated."
"Then he would have been disappointed in me regularly."
"Maybe." Hannah looked at him.
"But not today."
---
After dinner, Ellie fell asleep on the sitting room couch with Rosie under her chin and her shoes still on.
Hannah covered her with a blanket from the basket by the door.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
"She does that," Hannah said quietly.
"Falls asleep mid-sentence sometimes.
David used to say she runs on a timer and nobody knows when it's set for."
Adrian looked at the sleeping child.
Lily's stuffed bear was still upstairs in the locked room.
He had not gone in.
He did not know when he would.
But standing here, in the doorway, watching someone else's daughter sleep with a rabbit tucked under her chin — this did not feel like a betrayal.
It felt like something he had not known he was still capable of.
"Hannah." He used her first name without deciding to.
"I would like to offer you a permanent position here.
Not as a housekeeper.
As estate manager.
The role comes with a proper salary, housing on the grounds, and full medical coverage for both of you."
Hannah turned to look at him.
"That's a very large offer."
"It's a reasonable one."
"It's also—" She stopped.
"It would change things.
Between us.
The situation."
"Yes."
"I need to think about it."
"Of course."
She looked back at Ellie.
"She's going to want to know if the beetle is still there in the morning."
"I'll have someone check the garden."
Hannah laughed.
It was a small sound, surprised out of her, and it changed her face completely.
"You're going to have your security team check on a beetle."
"I'm going to have someone check on a beetle," Adrian said.
"There's a difference."
She laughed again, and this time it stayed.
---
He walked back to his study through the quiet house.
The carpet in the study had been replaced.
The wineglass was gone.
The desk had been cleaned and reset.
Everything looked the same as it had before.
He sat down.
He looked at the empty surface in front of him.
Then he opened the bottom drawer and took out the photograph he kept there — Elena and Lily at the beach, the summer before everything ended.
Elena's hair was blowing sideways.
Lily was pointing at something in the water, her whole body leaning forward with the urgency of a child who has just discovered something wonderful.
He set the photograph on the desk where he could see it.
May you like
He had not done that in three years.
He left it there.
