My Fiancé's Prenup Erased Me, So I Rewrote My Life novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: What I Won't Sign

Claire tells Rupert and Lydia she read their chat and refuses the prenup. Rupert says she has no legal paper on Poppy and will see her only when he says. As she leaves, he takes Poppy's rabbit out of her hand.

"Was I wrong?" Lydia said, still holding up the phone. "You withdraw the petition three days before the wedding. What is that, if not a ploy to make Rupert cave?"

Rupert stood by the fireplace with his arms folded.

"What exactly are you trying to do, Claire?"

"I don't want to go ahead with the application."

Lydia let out a small laugh.

"Listen to that. She won't even explain herself."

I set my bag down on the armchair.

For five years I had walked into this room and asked what everyone wanted for dinner.

"I'll explain," I said. "Rupert, open the family chat on your phone."

His eyes flicked to Lydia.

"Open it," I said, "and scroll to this morning, at ten forty. Read what you wrote."

Nobody moved.

Lydia was the first to speak, and she kept her voice kind.

"Claire, honey, that was a private strategy talk. We were worried about you."

"You were worried I wouldn't sign."

"We were worried about Poppy."

"Poppy was never in that message," I said. "My signature was."

Rupert's face had gone red.

"You read our private messages?"

I almost laughed.

"It lit up the tablet next to the cake. The baker read it with me."

"That doesn't make it yours."

"Rupert, I am four months pregnant with your child. The only thing you wrote in my defense was nothing."

"I wrote that you'd sign because you always do."

He said it plainly, and I could tell he meant it kindly.

Lydia crossed the room and laid a hand on his arm.

"You don't have to stand for this, Rupert. Not in your own house."

He glanced at her hand before he answered.

I saw it, and I didn't understand it yet.

"Sign the agreement," he said. "Sign it, and we get married Saturday and put this behind us."

"I read it. It calls me household help."

"It's a formality."

"Then you can sign mine."

"What does that mean?"

"It means my name goes on Poppy's school form tonight, as her mother, in your handwriting. And the caregiver clause comes out."

Lydia's smile slipped for the first time.

"That's exactly what you'd ask for," she said softly.

Rupert rubbed his forehead.

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not that simple."

"Then I won't sign."

"Then there is no wedding," Lydia said.

"Then there isn't."

"Don't say that," Rupert said, and for a second he looked afraid.

I did not know yet what he was afraid of.

The room was quiet.

When Rupert spoke again, he was calm, and that was worse than shouting.

"You have no paper on Poppy, Claire. You just withdrew the only one you had."

"I know."

"If you walk out that door, you see her when I say. And I won't say."

I looked at him for a long moment.

I had loved this man for five years.

I picked my bag up off the chair.

"Then I'll go get my things," I said.

Upstairs, I packed one suitcase.

I took my laptop, my medical folder and the iron pills.

I left the dress hanging in the closet, still in its plastic bag.

When I came down the stairs, I stopped on the third step from the bottom.

Poppy sat on the landing above the hall with her stuffed rabbit in her lap.

She had her yellow raincoat on over her pajamas.

"Claire, why do you have a suitcase?"

Lydia crossed the hall quickly and lifted her onto her hip.

"Claire's going on a little trip, sweetheart."

"Before the wedding?"

"Just for a few days."

Poppy kept looking at me.

She held out her rabbit with both hands.

"Take him," she said. "So you come back."

I reached for it.

Rupert's hand got there first.

He took the rabbit out of my fingers and set it back in his daughter's arms.

"Leave it," he said.

Poppy began to cry, and I walked out of the house.

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