Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Sixty-One Missed Calls

The apartment on Linden Street smelled like cedar and old radiators.

Allie's great-aunt had left it furnished with a green couch, a quilt on every chair and a kitchen where nothing matched.

I slept on the couch under two of the quilts and woke up to the sound of eggs.

"Sit," Allie said. She was in her scrubs, with a spatula in one hand. "You're eating for two now, and I'm on a double shift."

"I don't even have a doctor's appointment for another week."

"You have me," Allie said, and put a plate in my hands. "Eat."

I ate everything.

Then I took my phone out of my coat and held the power button.

"You don't have to do that today," Allie said.

"If I don't, he'll think I'm hiding."

"You are hiding."

"I'm gathering," I said.

The screen woke up, and the phone began to shake.

Sixty-one missed calls.

The first one had come in at ten past ten that morning, which was when Ross would have walked through our front door.

Then there were voicemails, one after another, and I played them on speaker so Allie could hear.

"Cora, pick up. Where are you? Your car's gone."

"Cora, I found the papers. This is insane. It was a dare."

"Cora, it was a joke. You know what Sabrina's like. Nobody meant anything by it."

His voice was the one he used on clients who had lost money.

Warm, slow and sorry.

"Don't make this into something it isn't," the last one said. "Call me. Please."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Her Husband's Other Life from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.