You Looked Down on Me Once, Now You Look Up. novel Chapter 12

“Didn’t Grandma ask me to have dinner at the Newtons’ tomorrow? Do you think someone’s trying to keep me from going?”

She asked cautiously, careful not to mention that she’d gone out of her way to visit Patricia at the hospital earlier.

After all, she’d chosen Riverdale’s top rehab center—not just any hospital. It wasn’t hard to guess that running into a certain someone there hadn’t been an accident.

“Don’t overthink it,” Oliver replied, his tone flat and only half-interested. He didn’t pick up on her hint about Patricia at all.

“Good thing my brother’s still overseas. If he knew I’d been in a car accident, he’d totally freak out,” Nina said, her voice all soft and sweet.

The Miller family was practically a household name in Riverdale. Joseph Miller, the eldest son, had been Oliver’s best friend since they were kids. Nina had been into Oliver for as long as she could remember, and once she found out he’d married a woman with a disability—and that their marriage wasn’t exactly real—she saw her chance and took it.

It just so happened Joseph found out, too, and before long, Nina was practically glued to Oliver’s side.

Whenever Patricia wasn’t around, Nina would come and go as she pleased, completely unbothered. Most of Oliver’s friends—and even the Miller family—just accepted it.

———

The Newtons’ family dinner happened on the fifteenth of every month. Grandma had made it a rule years ago, and it almost never got canceled. Patricia didn’t know about the past, but in the last few years, this was the first time she’d seen it called off.

Inside the villa, Patricia was directing the movers as they packed up her things.

A little before four-thirty, Marian came in and reminded her, “It’s almost five. Shouldn’t we get going to the dinner?”

“The dinner’s canceled. We’re not going,” Patricia said.

Marian looked surprised. “At a time like this? Don’t tell me he’s actually bringing that woman home now?”

Patricia hadn’t been thinking about that, but now the idea stuck with her. She went quiet for a second.

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