He Made Me Sign, Not Knowing I Was Another's Wife novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Wellness Visit

Hugh brings a doctor to the brownstone; she answers every question calmly and hands over her cards; her mother's jewelry box is empty and so is the envelope meant for her wedding.

Hugh let himself into the brownstone at nine the next morning.

He still had the key our mother gave him when he was twenty.

I was at the kitchen table with toast and coffee, dressed and ready, and I did not get up.

"Leona," he said, in the voice he used for videos. "I brought someone to talk to you. Just talk."

The someone stood behind him in the hall.

He was a thin man in a gray cardigan, carrying a tablet and a paper cup.

"The doctor is a friend," Hugh said. "He's helping me with the family."

I looked at the doctor. "Do you want coffee? There's plenty."

The doctor looked at Hugh before he answered.

I noticed that.

We sat in the front room, under my mother's portrait.

Hugh took the armchair by the door, the one that let him watch my hands.

The doctor sat across from me and asked how I was sleeping.

"Six hours a night. Better than last month."

"Appetite?"

"I'm eating. You can see the toast."

"Any thoughts of hurting yourself or anyone else?"

"No."

He typed something and asked me what I thought of yesterday.

"I signed the order. It was a fair request."

"Fair?"

"Clay wants his wedding to go well. I want that for him."

Hugh shifted in his chair.

He had been ready for tears.

He had a tissue box on the side table, which I had not put there.

"And how do you feel about the wedding itself?"

"I hope it's beautiful," I said. "I hope the weather holds."

The doctor typed longer this time.

Then he looked at my left hand.

"That's a nice ring."

"Thank you."

"Take it off," Hugh said.

His voice had slipped out of the video voice.

"It's mine," I said.

"Leona."

"You told the whole family I can wear whatever I like, as long as I stay a mile from the church."

He opened his mouth and shut it.

He couldn't quote his own message in front of the doctor without admitting where he'd said it.

Hugh did not want a fight in front of his doctor.

He wanted me to start one.

He stood up and held out his hand.

"Cards," he said. "Everything. I'll handle the bills until after the wedding. It's for your own peace of mind."

I took my wallet from the table and put my credit card in his palm.

Then the debit card, and the store card, and the transit pass.

He closed his fingers on them.

"Good," he said, and sounded almost surprised.

"Thank you for understanding."

"You're welcome."

The doctor put his tablet away.

"I don't see anything alarming," he said, mostly to the room.

"She's composed. Perhaps too composed."

"She hasn't slept," Hugh said. "Look at her."

"I'm sitting right here," I said, "and I slept fine."

Neither of them answered.

I walked them to the door and shook the doctor's hand.

Hugh stopped on the step and turned back.

"I'll be by Saturday morning, early. I want you to have company on the day."

"That's kind of you."

His eyes narrowed a little.

He didn't like me thanking him.

He left, and I shut the door and stood in the hall with my forehead against the wood.

My hands were shaking now that nobody could see.

I went upstairs to the room that had been my mother's dressing room.

Her jewelry box sat on the vanity where it had always been, a dark walnut case her mother had given her.

I lifted the lid.

It was empty.

The pearls were gone, and so were her wedding earrings and the little gold watch.

The envelope was gone too, the cream one with my name on the front in her handwriting.

She had written under my name: For when you marry.

I had never opened it.

Where the envelope had been lay a yellow sticky note in Hugh's neat hand.

Safe with me.

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