Not His Wife novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Subject: Ivy Tolbert

Ivy's POV

He came back at nine, as the note said.

I was at my mother's table with the tan coat across my knees.

I had put on the same coat I wore Monday, because I wanted to see if he knew it.

He knew it.

His eyes went to the coat and then to my face, and I watched the color leave his.

"You found the photo," he said.

"I found the photo."

"Ivy, let me tell you."

"You stood in that lobby."

"Yes."

"At 9:31."

"I came at half past eight."

I had expected a lie, and the plain answer was worse.

"You watched me walk to the desk," I said. "You watched me sit down. You watched that woman turn her screen around."

"Yes."

"You were forty feet away."

"Thirty," he said. "I had a newspaper."

"You said no lies."

"I never told you where I was on Monday morning. I told you where I was at noon."

"That's a lie with a good coat on."

"Yes," he said. "It is."

I stood up.

My chair scraped the linoleum where he had knelt, and I saw him see it, and we both looked away.

"I thought whoever signed might lead me to Alyssa," he said. "I never thought it would be you."

"I wasn't whoever. I was a woman who was about to find out she wasn't married."

"I know."

"You could have walked across the lobby."

"I could have."

"You could have said my name."

"I didn't know your name. I only knew she was the wife on the application."

"Then you could have said, 'Ma'am, don't sit down.'"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you?"

He did not hurry.

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