In The Storm, My Husband Locked Me Out And Chose Her novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Deadbolt
Eleanor's car sat in the turnout until Orin walked down the road.
He stood beside it with his hands in his pockets.
He did not knock on the glass.
He only stood there, and after a minute the engine started, and the long dark car backed out and went away.
She never got out of it.
I watched all of it from the porch, with my daughter against my shoulder.
"She'll be back," Maeve said behind me.
"I know."
That was the end of November.
By the second week of December, the doctor had looked me over and said yes to everything I had been afraid to ask.
On Tuesday evening, Maeve stood in the kitchen doorway with her coat on and a bag of diapers over her shoulder.
"I'm taking the baby to a friend's from the ward," she said. "We're sleeping over."
"Maeve."
"There's a bottle in the fridge. Don't wait up."
"It's only..."
"It's been five weeks and four days since a man in a truck said ask me again in a week," Maeve said. "You have been very patient and I have been very patient, and I can't do it any more. Go."
I stood in her kitchen with my face burning.
Then I put on the big gray coat that had never gone back to him, and I went across the road.
Orin opened the door before I knocked.
He was in his sock feet, in a flannel shirt with the sleeves pushed up.
A fire was going behind him.
The house smelled like woodsmoke and coffee.
"It's been a long week," I said.
"Five weeks."
"Four days. Maeve counted."
"She would."
I took a breath.
"Orin Garrick, I'm asking you again."
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