He Called Every Truth a Lie novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Not Until It's Filed

Toby sat on Bridget's couch with a bag of frozen peas against his face.

He told it in pieces.

"Tristram found out about the card on Friday night. He didn't say a word. He waited until Mom went up to bed."

"Then he hit you."

"Twice." Toby tried to laugh and winced. "He said I'd cost him the one thing that couldn't be replaced."

"What's that?" Ethan asked.

"Your trust. Hers." Toby looked at me. "He said you were supposed to stay confused until Monday."

My skin went tight.

"Until the hearing?"

"What hearing?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

Toby shook his head.

"I only know there's a schedule." He unzipped the gym bag and took out a paper folded in four. "I took it from Mom's pantry drawer this morning. It's in her writing."

He smoothed it open on the table.

It was a calendar, one square for each day of the year, and in every square was a small number.

"Those are milligrams," Bridget said, reading over my shoulder.

"The white pill goes up on bad weeks," Toby said. "Mom does it. Tristram reads the page every Sunday night and signs the corner."

I looked at the corner.

There was a pencil tick in every week.

"He knew," I said.

"Everyone knew," Toby whispered. "Everybody except you."

He started to cry then, a big soft man in a jersey, with a bag of peas on his face.

Bridget put a hand on his back.

"I'm driving you to the ER to get that cheek checked," she told him. "Then you eat something. Get your shoes."

They were gone ten minutes later, and the apartment went quiet.

I sat at the table holding the calendar.

Ethan stood by the window.

For a long time neither of us said anything.

My phone buzzed on the table.

It was a text from a number I didn't know.

Tristram Nordin has filed for divorce, citing fraud and abandonment. Please call our office.

I read it twice and then held it up.

"It's filed," I said.

Ethan turned from the window and looked at me.

"Your rule was, not until it's filed."

"Tristram filed it. Not me."

"Your rule didn't say who."

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