My Husband's April Fool's Joke Came True novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Route 9

the hospital; Ernest, Joan, Taryn and the girl in the waiting room; Taryn tries to get in first; Prescott asks for Kristen; the groveling: "I changed my will, everything is yours, Taryn tricked me, you're the only one I love, forgive me"; Ernest and Taryn in the doorway hear it; Prescott dies; Taryn's scream. Ends: Terrence, who has not been seen in four years, is in the corridor: "Kristen. I'm sorry. I came as soon as Mom called."

Marlow Bay General was twelve minutes from Brightwater, and I made it in eight.

The waiting room was full of fluorescent light and bad coffee.

Ernest stood at the window with his back to the door and his hands behind him.

Joan sat in a plastic chair with her purse in her lap and her pearls crooked.

Across the room, in the corner, sat Taryn.

She had a little girl on her knee in a yellow raincoat and yellow boots.

The girl was asleep with her mouth open.

Taryn's mascara had run down to her chin, and her red dress was spattered with something dark.

"Kristen," Joan whispered and stood.

"Where is he?" I said.

"Surgery's done," said Ernest, without turning around.

"They say he's asking for people."

"They say he doesn't have long."

"He's asking for me," said Taryn, loudly.

She stood up with the girl and walked toward the nurses' station.

"I'm the mother of his child," she told the nurse.

"I was in the car right behind him."

"I saw it, I saw him go through the rail, and I'm not waiting out here."

The nurse looked at her chart and then at me.

"Mrs. Nordquist?" she said.

"He's asked for his wife. Just his wife."

I felt every eye in the room.

Taryn's mouth opened.

"You're joking," she said.

"I'm his family. I have his daughter."

"I'm sorry," said the nurse, quite kindly.

"It's the patient's wish."

I walked past Taryn without a word.

I could hear the girl beginning to cry as I went through the double doors.

Prescott lay in the narrow bed at the end of the unit with tubes in both arms.

There was a bandage on his head, and a darkness under it that spread.

His hair was no longer gelled.

I stood at the side of the bed, and for a moment all I could feel was how young he looked.

Then his eyes opened.

"Kristen," he said.

It came out as a thread.

"You came."

"I came," I said.

"Kristen, I'm so sorry."

His hand moved on the sheet, and I did not take it.

"It was a joke," he said.

"All of it. I swear it was only a joke."

"Taryn set it up, she tricked me, she wanted the photo."

"You're the only one I love, you know that."

"You always were."

In the doorway behind me, I heard a quick breath.

Ernest had come through the doors, and Taryn was behind him, pushing the girl's face into her shoulder.

Prescott did not look at them.

He was looking at me with wet, desperate eyes.

He had never looked at me like that in five years.

"I fixed it," he said.

"I fixed the will, Kristen."

"Everything's yours. The shares, the house, the accounts."

"Taryn gets nothing, I took her off."

"Please, forgive me, just say you forgive me."

I looked at the man I had married.

I knew his will.

On Monday night, after the office, I had gone through his desk at home.

It was in the bottom drawer, signed and stapled, dated six months ago.

He had left every cent to Taryn Beauregard and to a child he called "my daughter."

He was lying to me.

He was lying with all his strength, because he was dying, and because he wanted a good marriage on his last night.

I felt it land.

It was a small, familiar click.

"Say it," Prescott whispered.

"Say you forgive me."

Behind me, Taryn made a sound.

"He's lying," she said.

"He's confused, he's on morphine, that isn't true."

"Ernest, tell her it isn't true."

Ernest said nothing.

I leaned down until my mouth was near Prescott's ear.

"No," I said.

"Not tonight, and not after."

"But I heard you."

"Everything's mine."

His face relaxed.

He thought it was a yes.

His eyes slid shut, and the monitor above him began to draw a long, thin, even line.

A nurse pushed past me.

Joan's hands flew to her mouth.

Ernest did not move.

And Taryn screamed.

"He lied!" she shrieked.

"He's lying, he's lying, he's lying!"

The girl woke and began to wail.

I walked out into the corridor and stood against the cold wall with my eyes closed.

I had known for three days.

I had warned him once, in front of forty people.

It was still the worst moment of my life.

A pair of boots came to a stop in front of me, scuffed and wet, with lake mud on the toes.

I opened my eyes.

The man in front of me was tall and broad, with a dark beard and a rain jacket dripping onto the tile.

He had Prescott's eyes and none of Prescott's smile.

He had been Prescott's best man at my wedding five years ago, and the last time I'd seen him was the family's Christmas table four years ago, when he had left before dessert and never come back.

"Kristen," said Terrence Nordquist.

"I'm sorry."

"I came as soon as Mom called."

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