He Locked Me Out and Let Her In novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Call From Denver

Reuben's POV

At six on Wednesday morning my phone rang with a Denver number I had not deleted.

I took it into the kitchen so I would not wake Maddie.

"I saw the video," my ex-wife said. "Half a million views. A friend sent it to me with a note that said, isn't this your Reuben?"

"It isn't me in it."

"No. You're the man at the back with his hands in his pockets." She laughed a little, without any meanness. "I watched all four minutes looking for you."

"I wasn't there."

"I know. That's what I mean."

I leaned on the counter and said nothing, which she heard.

"Reuben, do you know why I left?"

"You told me."

"I told you you were cold. That was wrong, and I've had two years to figure it out." Her voice stayed even. "You're not cold. You see everything. You see it the first day. You write it down in a little folder, and you never say it out loud."

I looked at the window over the sink.

The folder was in my jacket on the chair behind me.

"This girl," she said. "Maddie. Does she know you saw the woman in the car?"

"She does now. I told her last week, after she found out some other way."

"After," said my ex-wife.

"After."

"Then you're still doing it, just later. Say the next thing before she has to find it."

"What next thing?"

"I don't know," she said gently. "You will. Don't wait three years, Reuben. You'll lose this one, too."

She hung up.

I stood in the kitchen with the phone in my hand, hating how right she was, and the sound of Maddie breathing through the bedroom door.

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