After 24 Years of Marriage, My Husband Got His Costar Pregnant and My Son Asked Me to Accept Her novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Ring on the Receipt

Randall lays out his terms, leaves for Danica, and Helena packs and leaves her ring on the restaurant receipt. A car is already booked for her.

I got home first and sat down at the kitchen table with the restaurant's deposit receipt.

Randall came in twenty minutes later with his phone at his ear, asking someone whether the clip had been posted anywhere.

He saw me and held up one finger.

I waited until he hung up.

"Call the restaurant tonight. Take my name off that form."

He hung his jacket over a chair. "If you don't like the seating, I'll have them change it."

"You don't get to confirm things for me."

"Helena, you're exhausted. You're not making sense."

He took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and drank half of it standing up.

Then he checked his phone again.

"The interview is at nine. I'll send the car at eight thirty."

"You still want me to sit beside you and smile?"

A laugh came out of me that I hadn't planned.

"It's booked," he said. "There's a host, a crew and a studio full of people. If you pull out now, we have to explain why."

"Tell them I found out about you and Danica."

"Then it falls apart, and Bennett's night is already ruined."

"Did I ruin it?"

"I didn't say that."

He sat across from me and set his phone down.

"I want us to get through what's on the calendar. There are a few more appearances with Danica. When Bennett has graduated, we'll have time."

"And until then I go where you go and pose where you point?"

"We keep it normal in public. People have already seen you supporting the pairing."

He turned the bottle cap between his fingers.

"At home, you can have the guest room. I'll take it tonight."

I waited for him to say the one thing I had not heard yet.

"You haven't said you'll end it with her."

"She's carrying my child. I can't walk away and leave her alone."

"What about us? Twenty-four years?"

He looked past me at the refrigerator, which hummed.

His water bottle sat on one corner of the receipt. Under it I could see the dietary notes I'd written for Bennett's dinner.

"Stay and talk to me tonight," I said. "Just us."

For a moment I thought he would.

He turned his phone facedown and reached across the table for my hand.

His palm was warm, and I held on.

I opened my mouth to ask what he had thought of me through the whole of that year.

Then the phone buzzed against the wood.

He read Danica's name, looked at me, and let go to answer.

"What is it?"

I couldn't hear her. I heard him say, "Don't reply to anyone. Darren is already on it. I'm coming."

He reached for his jacket. "She's panicking about the video. She won't answer her door."

"I asked you to stay."

"I'll check on her and come back. Go to bed."

He took his keys from the bowl.

"We'll settle the interview in the morning. If you're willing to work with me, we have time."

He waited at the door for me to say something.

I did not.

The door closed, and the house was very quiet.

I stood there, and then I went upstairs.

The suitcase was on the top shelf of the closet.

I pulled it down, and the wheel clacked against the door frame.

I froze, and then I understood there was nobody left to wake.

I packed clothes, my medication, my passport, my laptop and the folder with my own bank statements.

Randall had always called that account my pin money. I had opened it when I was twenty-two and never once added his name to it.

My phone lit up on the bed.

Bennett: Are you still coming to get my suit with me tomorrow?

I looked at the open suitcase and typed: Yes. Same time.

He wrote back: Thanks, Mom. Get some rest.

I did not tell him where his father had gone.

Downstairs, I took off my wedding ring and laid it on the receipt.

Then I picked up my own car keys.

I drove out of the neighborhood and pulled over under the first streetlight.

I booked a hotel room on my phone, with the joint card, the one Randall's office paid every month.

Then I opened the email for the morning interview and wrote that I would not be attending.

I asked the coordinator to cancel my arrangements.

A text from Randall came in before I could close the screen.

Tomorrow the host will ask if you mind us playing up the romance. Say what you said last time. Remember to smile.

I put the phone on the passenger seat.

It buzzed again.

The coordinator had answered my email.

Understood, Helena. Darren tells me a car is already booked to collect you from your hotel at 8:30, so I'll leave your chair in place.

I had not told anyone which hotel.

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