Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Every Date Lines Up

“Dr. Yardley, can you tell what cut Mandy’s leg? And how long ago it happened?”

A good doctor could read both of those straight off a wound.

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Elliot Yardley gave him a surprised look before he answered. “Judging by the wound, something like a nail caught her. As for how many days ago…”

He sounded less certain about that part. “There was a lot of grit in it when she came in and rain had washed through it. If it didn’t happen the same day she saw me, I’d put it a day or two before that.”

Adrian was not all the way convinced. “Could it be new? From yesterday?”

That got a laugh out of Elliot, who slid the chart across to him. “Mr. Pierce, be serious. She came in days ago. A wound from yesterday isn’t physically possible.”

Adrian opened the chart and found the visit date and the diagnosis recorded in plain black and white.

The patient was Mandy, the wound came from something like a rusted nail, and the visit fell on the day after the storm, right as she was leaving Deerridge.

Every date lined up.

Nora had taken a fall and scraped herself, and he had read far too much into it.

Adrian accepted all of it and walked out of the office.

Elliot let out a long breath once he was gone, then picked up his phone, still baffled. “Professor Blithe got involved over something this small?”

A few minutes earlier an unknown number had called with instructions and sent him a chart to copy out, and he had barely finished writing when Adrian walked in asking questions.

Adrian had only just opened the car door when he caught Mandy turning away and lifting a hand to her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Adrian asked her gently.

Mandy pressed her lips together. “Nothing. What took you so long?”

Her eyes were red and wet, and Adrian looked up at the driver. “Did something happen out here?”

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10:52 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 13 Every Date Lines Up

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The driver answered him. “No, sir. Miss Sinclair’s leg was hurting badly enough to make her cry.”

Mandy hooked her arm through his and softened her whole voice. “It doesn’t hurt. As long as you’re all right, Ace, nothing hurts.”

Adrian pulled her in, gentle and apologetic. “I’m sorry. I won’t leave you sitting out here alone again.”

She had been hurt saving his life. How could I have doubted it was her?

Mandy lowered her eyes. Nora had messaged her minutes ago to say she had run into Adrian.

That meant trouble and she knew it, so she put on a small performance, and it worked exactly the way she wanted. He’s gentle, he’s devoted, he doesn’t look at anyone else. I came out ahead this time.

Sitting in her own car, Nora read the single word Mandy sent back and understood that Adrian’s suspicion had already been handled.

Then she sent a message to Rosalind. “Thank you, Grandma.”

Medicine had come to her late in her last life and her own network did not reach very far yet, but she knew her grandmother’s did, which was why she had asked.

Her grandmother’s place was a classic little country property behind a high wall, with a chicken coop and rabbit hutches down the left side and a small worked plot on the right, planted with what looked like a jumble of flowers and weeds.

None of it was flowers. All of it was medicine.

Nora went inside, collected the herbs she wanted and the case of silver needles, and on her way out she found herself turning toward the old, battered jewelry box sitting on the vanity.

She crossed to it, picked it up, and turned it over carefully in her hands.

Inside sat everything her grandmother had brought into her marriage, a few red hair ties, rouge and face powder from another era, and one pressed orchid.

“There’s nothing valuable in here.” Nora studied it a while longer and still found nothing unusual about it. “So why was this the only thing that went missing after she died?”

The box itself was worth nothing either, plain wood and nothing more, and a few decades of age fell well short of making it an antique.

The jar of gold beads on the shelf beside it was worth considerably more.

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10:52 Thu, Sep 17

Chapter 13 Every Date Lines Up

1344

སྙ

Finished

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