Never Divorce a Wife Who Loves You Deeply novel · Chapter 3 of 32

Chapter 3: Visiting Hours

Scott and his mother blame Robin for the crash at her hospital bed, Scott says the necklace is all Joey has, and Robin asks for a divorce.

My dash camera got all of it.

I heard that sentence over and over in the ambulance, under the siren.

Then they gave me something in the arm and I didn't hear anything.

I woke up the next morning with a metal rod in my right shin.

Twelve weeks before I'd walk without a crutch. Longer before I'd walk without a limp.

My left forearm was wrapped from wrist to elbow.

There were seven stitches in my hairline.

I asked the nurse if anyone had called.

She checked the chart, and then she checked it again.

"Your brother-in-law called last night to ask what floor you were on."

"Not my husband?"

"I'm sure he's on his way, hon."

He came at eleven.

I heard Joey first, in the hall, and then his grandmother's voice telling him not to touch the hand sanitizer.

Scott came in carrying a coffee.

He'd showered. He had on a clean golf shirt and his good watch, and there were small white bandages on two of his fingers.

His mother came in behind him in her pearl earrings, holding Joey's hand.

Joey had his brown bear under one arm.

Around the bear's neck, knotted twice so it wouldn't slip, was a thin silver chain with a small diamond pendant.

"Look, Aunt Robin," Joey said. "Bear's keeping it safe now."

I didn't say anything.

Scott set the coffee on the windowsill. He didn't bring me one.

"How's the leg?"

"There's a rod in it."

"They said it went well."

He said it like I'd come through a dental cleaning.

His mother sat down in the only chair.

She looked at my bandaged arm, then at my face, and folded her hands in her lap.

"Well," she said. "I hope you're happy."

The nurse was at the IV pole, changing a bag.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Scott told me you started a fight in a gas station parking lot in front of strangers. Over a seat." She shook her head. "And then you kept at him on the highway, and he couldn't concentrate."

"A truck crossed into our lane."

"A focused driver would have seen it coming."

"He was looking in the mirror at Joey."

"Because you upset the child." She looked at the nurse, like she wanted a witness. "She does this. She works herself up and the whole house pays for it."

Scott didn't correct her.

He picked his coffee back up and drank some.

"Scott," I said. "Tell her what happened."

"Robin, you're on a lot of medication."

"Tell her you left me in the car."

The nurse had stopped pretending to work on the bag.

Scott put the coffee down.

"I didn't know you were stuck," he said. "It was chaos. There was smoke everywhere. I thought you were right behind me."

"You looked at me."

"I was looking at the fire."

"You looked right at my face and I said help me."

"I had to get my son out. Any father would have done the same."

"And the necklace?"

He glanced at Joey's bear.

His voice dropped, the soft voice, the one for Kristy.

"That necklace is all he has left of his mother. You know that. If it had burned, it would have destroyed him."

"And if I'd burned?"

He didn't answer.

He looked at his watch.

His mother answered for him.

"Don't be dramatic. You're sitting here, aren't you? You're fine."

Joey climbed onto the foot of the bed with his bear.

He sat right on my cast.

I sucked in a breath, and he didn't move.

"Grandma says the car caught fire because you were being mean to Daddy," he said.

"That's not true, sweetheart."

"Grandma says Mommy's car crashed because of you too."

His grandmother didn't look embarrassed.

She looked pleased that he'd remembered.

The nurse set down the empty bag.

"I need everyone off the bed, please," she said. "Her leg's four hours out of surgery."

Scott lifted Joey down.

"Come on, buddy. Aunt Robin needs her rest."

He stood by the bed with Joey on his hip.

He looked tired, and a little bored.

"We'll get you a rental when you're discharged," he said. "Mom's going to stay with us for a while and help with Joey. You'll have the guest room downstairs, so you don't have to deal with the stairs."

"The guest room."

"It's more practical."

His mother smoothed Joey's hair.

"Kristy never needed help with anything," she said. "She could run that house with a newborn and a cold."

I looked at the bear.

The diamond was turned outward, right against its fuzzy brown chest.

For three years I'd done school forms and swim lessons and pediatric appointments.

I'd sat up nights with the EpiPen in my lap when Joey had hives.

I'd sat in the back seat.

Every single time, I'd sat in the back.

"Scott," I said.

He turned at the door.

"If it had been Kristy in that back seat," I said. "Would you have gone for the box?"

His mother's head came up.

Scott's face went hard.

"Don't you dare use her like that."

"That's a no."

"That's enough, Robin."

The nurse was standing with her hand on the curtain, perfectly still.

I had loved this man since I was twenty years old.

I had loved him from the second row at his wedding to my sister.

I had loved him on the day he asked me to marry him, when he said, "Joey needs you," and never once said he did.

"I want a divorce," I said.

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