System Husband: One Divorce and I'm Gone novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Stamped

At the courthouse Brody streams the decree and calls Nolan the ex. Nolan takes off his ring and says no to Margot for the first time.

Brody Keene was waiting on the courthouse steps at nine, holding his phone out at arm's length.

A small light on top of it glowed red.

"Morning, family," he told it. "Big day. Say hi to the husband."

He swung the phone toward me.

I had a coffee in my hand and my sister at my elbow, and Millie said a word that the phone picked up.

Margot stood two steps above him in her good coat, and she did not look at the camera or at me.

"Brody," she said. "I asked you not to film."

"I'm not filming, babe. I'm sharing." He grinned into the lens. "That's what you do when you're proud of somebody."

Her lawyer came down the steps and held the door.

"We'll go in one at a time," he said. "Mr. Treharne first."

Brody followed us right up to the metal detector.

Nobody stopped him.

Margot had said nobody was supposed to know, and now two million people did.

I thought about saying that to her.

I didn't have the time, because the clerk was already calling my name.

The room upstairs was small and beige, with a flag in one corner and a judge who looked at the clock twice.

He read the papers in a flat voice.

"Do both parties understand that this order ends the marriage?"

"Yes," Margot said.

"Yes," I said.

She did not turn her head.

He stamped the papers once.

The sound was a small, dry thump, and it was all it took.

The panel opened in the air above the judge's desk, bright blue against the beige.

BOND SEVERED, 11:42 A.M.

HUSBAND SYSTEM: TASKS RELEASED.

HOST REMOVAL IN 168:00:00.

I stood there and read it while the judge handed back the folder.

Nothing hurt.

I had braced for the hurt, but what came was quiet.

For the first time in three years, nothing in the room was waiting for me to do it right.

No task bar at the corner of my eye, no points, no little chime when I'd remembered her allergy medicine or her mother's birthday.

The chime had been the sound of my whole marriage.

I took my wedding ring off in the hallway.

It came off easily, which surprised me.

Brody was filming that too, from three feet away, and he whispered, "Oh, this is gold," to his followers.

I held the ring out to Margot.

"Keep it with the house papers," I said. "You'll want it when you undo this."

She took it, and for a moment her fingers closed over mine.

"It's seven days," she said quietly. "I told you. Seven days, and then we fix it."

"I know what you told me."

"Then why do you sound like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're already gone."

Brody leaned in with the phone.

"Aw," he said. "Bless him. He's taking it so well."

Millie took one step toward him, and I put my arm out in front of her.

"Not here," I said.

"He's filming a funeral, Nolan."

"I know. Not here."

We went down the front steps together.

Margot's car was at the curb with three suitcases in the trunk, packed for a trip she'd decided to take on the way from the house to the courthouse.

The driver opened the trunk, and the lawyer said, "I have to be in court by one."

"Nolan," Margot said. "Would you carry those up to the house? My legs are tired and the stairs are a lot."

She held out the keys.

It was a small thing, and I had done it a hundred times.

I looked at the keys in her hand.

Then I looked at Brody, who was twenty-five years old, six feet of gym, and busy zooming in on my face.

"Brody's got arms," I said.

Margot's smile went away.

"What?"

"He's got two of them. He's very proud of them. I've seen the videos."

Millie made a sound behind me that she turned into a cough.

Brody said, "Dude, she's asking you nicely."

"She is," I said. "And I'm saying no nicely."

The word felt strange in my mouth.

It felt good.

"Nolan." Margot's voice had dropped. "You're being childish."

"I'm moving out. That's what the papers said."

"I know what the papers said."

"Then I'm not your husband for the next week, and I'm not carrying your bags."

She stood very still on the pavement.

Then she put one hand on the railing beside the steps, and I saw her knuckles go pale.

She had her other hand pressed flat against her chest, below the collarbone, and she took one slow breath, then another.

She hadn't even carried anything.

"Babe?" Brody said, and lowered the phone. "You good?"

"I'm fine." Her voice came out thin. "Just the stairs. It's nothing."

I took one step toward her before I had decided to.

Millie caught my sleeve and held on.

"She said she's fine," my sister said, so low that only I heard. "You told me you were done."

I stopped.

The blue panel was still waiting beside my shoulder, and while I stood on the courthouse sidewalk, a new line scrolled under the first.

NOTICE TO HOST: CLAUSE 2 OF THE SURVIVAL AGREEMENT ACTIVATES ON REMOVAL.

I frowned at it.

I had read the first page of that agreement three years ago in a stairwell with my wife dying on the floor above me.

I didn't remember a Clause 2.

DETAILS: LOCKED.

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