Perfect Husband Act: Now My Wife's Sorry novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Say Their Names

Audrey's POV

I ran.

I do not remember the steps off the stage, or my heels, or the sound the ballroom made.

I remember Ethan standing beside my mother's chair, with the white tablecloth showing through his chest.

"Ethan!"

I grabbed his hand and my fingers closed on air.

My mother had her arms around his waist, and she was sobbing, and her hands met each other in the middle of him.

"Ethan Kramer," I said. "Ethan Kramer, look at me."

He looked at me.

His eyes were the only thing about him that still looked solid.

"Audrey," he said, and I could hardly hear it. "It's all right."

"Don't you say that."

"I love you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Stop it. You stay. Do you hear me?"

I said his name again, loud, with every ounce of intention I had.

It did nothing.

The cold in his chest went on spreading.

On the stage, Travis straightened his cuffs.

"That's what a closed file looks like," he said into the microphone. "A sad thing. A man who was never real, going back to where he came from. I'm sorry for your loss, Audrey."

A woman screamed.

I stood in the middle of the Hilliard Club with my husband dissolving in front of me, and I knew that one voice was not enough.

Then, from table three, a chair scraped.

The receptionist stood up.

She had her gray cardigan on over her evening dress, and she was holding a framed photograph against her chest.

Her face was dead white, and her hands were shaking.

"My husband's name," she said, in a small, steady voice, "is the name that I could not say for two years."

She said it.

It was one short word.

I heard it, and I understood the room had heard it too, because the hush in the ballroom changed.

I saw her stare at her own mouth.

"It held," she whispered. "It held. I said it. He's real."

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