After My Miscarriage, My Husband Locked Me Out novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Folder

The envelope from the county came eleven days after Cavan filed, and he drove over with it before I'd finished my coffee.

He didn't say hello.

He walked into my kitchen, sat down at the table and laid the envelope in front of him.

Then he looked at it for a full minute without opening it.

"Do you want me to?" I asked.

"No." He breathed in. "I've waited two years. I can do it."

He slit the flap with his thumb.

Inside was a thin stack of pages stapled in the corner.

He read the first one, and his shoulders went down.

"What does it say?" I asked.

"Certificate of death."

He turned it so I could read.

Daniel Ruddock, age thirty-nine.

Place of death: a private residence, 22 Orchard Lane.

Cause of death: ruptured brain aneurysm.

Time of death: 6:12 a.m.

Manner of death, in a box at the bottom: natural.

"Natural," I said.

"A blood vessel in his head," Cavan said. "Burst."

His voice had gone very quiet.

"There was no crash. He died in his own house."

I put my hand over my mouth.

"The next page is the first responders' report," he said. "Wife at the scene. Wife called at 6:15. Male, thirty-nine, found on the bathroom floor. Efforts to revive were unsuccessful."

"Danielle found him."

"Danielle found him."

He turned the page.

"There's a note at the bottom. The medical examiner says the aneurysm was congenital. He'd had it all his life. It could have gone at any time."

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