Day Seven I Signed It novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Seventy-Two Hours

Reese turned thirty-four on Thursday, and she held her party at a steakhouse downtown.

I knew because it was in the chat I had never left.

Margo was paying.

She always paid for Reese's birthday, on the credit card that was in my name, with her name added as a user.

At noon I had called the bank and taken her name off it.

It took six minutes.

The woman on the phone asked if I wanted to keep the card itself, and I said yes.

At 8:58 that night, I walked into the steakhouse in my work clothes.

There were twenty people at a long table by the window.

Reese sat at the head with a paper crown on her black bob.

Margo was beside her, in a green dress I had bought her for our fifth anniversary.

Gavin was on her other side, in a navy jacket, laughing at something Reese said.

Nobody saw me until I was halfway across the room.

Then the table went quiet from one end to the other.

"Oh my God," Reese said. "He came. Margo, he came."

"Hi, Reese. Happy birthday," I said.

Margo stood up so fast her chair scraped.

Her whole face changed, and for one second I saw nine years of her wanting to be right.

"I knew it," she said. "I knew you would."

"I came because of the time," I said.

I looked at my watch.

"It's two minutes before nine," I said. "Monday night at nine, I walked out. That's seventy-two hours."

Nobody moved.

"Reese is holding the pool," I said. "Margo said I'd be home before Thursday. I'm not home."

The color began to leave Margo's face.

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