Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Stairwell

I didn't let him in.

I took my phone, stepped out onto the landing and pulled the door shut behind me, and Allie stayed on the other side with her hand on the lock.

Ross stood on the top stair in the charcoal suit, creased now across the lap.

His tie was gone, and his collar was open.

The silver cufflinks were still at his wrists.

His wedding ring was on his hand.

"Thank God," he said, and reached for me.

I stepped back.

"Don't."

"Cora, you left." He kept his voice low and reasonable. "You put your ring on a pile of paper and walked out. Do you know what that did to me?"

"I know what you did to me."

"It was a dare."

"You married her."

"I did not marry her. It was for photographs."

"You promised not to answer my calls."

He actually looked relieved to be on safe ground.

"That was a line in a joke, Cora. Everyone knew that."

"Then why are you wearing my ring?" I said.

He glanced down at his hand.

"It's my ring."

"It's the ring I gave you at the altar. You wore it to marry another woman."

"Keep your voice down."

"Why?"

Across the landing a door opened.

A woman from the apartment opposite stood there in a bathrobe with one hand on her round stomach and the other holding a coffee mug.

Below us, on the stairs, an older man had stopped with a bag of groceries.

Ross saw them and lowered his voice even more.

"Let's talk inside."

"We're talking here," I said. "You spent the Family Future Fund on a honeymoon suite."

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