She Sent Me Nudes of My Husband novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Study

Adele offers Leah a typed settlement letter and the threat of her mother's care; Leah refuses, and a stranger waits at the gate holding the same envelope.

Adele's house sat at the top of Hillcrest Drive, behind a black iron gate that opened before I could ring.

She was waiting in her study with the door shut.

My envelope lay open on the green blotter, and the glossy cover lay beside it, face up.

She did not look at it.

"Sit, Leah."

I stayed standing.

"You've been very busy," she said. "A hundred and twelve stamps. Mine, I believe."

"You gave them to me."

"For a party. Not for this."

She folded her hands. The cold rings clicked together.

"The pastor called me at eight this morning. Then the hospital board's treasurer.

"Then three women from the foundation, one of them in tears.

"They all want to know what my daughter-in-law has done to this family."

"I didn't do it to the family."

"No?"

"A woman sent me that picture. Your son's hand is in it."

"My son's hand," Adele said, "is in a photograph that anyone can make on a telephone."

I had expected her to be angry at him.

I had expected a slap, or a scream, or at least a look of shame.

She wasn't even breathing hard.

"You were at the restaurant on Sunday," I said.

"I told you. I had a feeling."

"You didn't ask what was on my phone."

"I did ask. You said it was a wrong number."

Her voice was still gentle.

"I took you at your word, dear. That's what a mother does."

She slid a typed page across the blotter.

I read the top line.

At the very top was the date. October 25.

Below it, in plain type, was one paragraph.

"I, Leah Halvorsen, ask that my marriage end quietly and privately.

"I make no claim on the property or business of the Halvorsen family."

"What is this?"

"A kindness," she said. "You will cancel the party. You will sign that.

"You will sign a second note for the pastor, saying you were unwell this week and regret any distress.

"In return you walk away with enough money to start over somewhere no one is watching."

"You typed this before you ever saw the picture."

"I type a great many things before I need them. It's what a board president does."

I put the page down on the blotter and pushed it back to her with two fingers.

"No."

Adele sighed.

She stood and went to the window, where Marlow lay spread out below the hill.

I could see the courthouse, and the hospital with her name on its east wing.

"Your mother is at Maple Court," she said.

I went still.

"Room twelve, with a window on the garden. Sixty-two hundred dollars a month, you'll remember, and your insurance pays none of it."

"The foundation pays it."

"The foundation pays it," she agreed, "as a gift from this family. Your husband's family. Gifts can be withdrawn."

I heard it, and I understood every word.

"You would put my mother out on the street."

"I would never be so crude. The administrator would simply send you a notice. Thirty days, to make other arrangements."

"And Bev?" I said. I could hear my own voice shaking now. "You've already thought of her too."

"Her flower shop sits in a building my company owns, dear. Her lease comes up in January. Such a loyal friend."

She turned from the window and smiled at me.

It was the same smile she had worn at my wedding.

"You have been loved in this family for seven years, Leah. Don't make me regret it."

I thought about my mother in her chair by the window.

I thought about my father's diner, which I had sold to pay for his funeral.

Adele had held my hand through all of it.

I had thought that was love.

"Then withdraw it," I said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Withdraw it. Send the notice. I'll find the money."

"With what?"

"I'll pick up extra shifts. I'll sell the car. I'll do it a hundred other ways."

"You will lose," she said quietly.

"Maybe."

I picked up the glossy cover from her blotter.

"But the party is on Saturday, Adele. You're on page nine. I'll see you there."

Her smile did not move.

But her left hand went flat against the green leather, and I saw the knuckles whiten.

I let myself out through the front hall, past the portraits of dead Halvorsens, and down the steps.

The iron gate swung open for me.

A pickup truck was parked across the road with its engine running.

A man stood at the gate in a canvas work jacket, with mud on his boots.

He was big, and he wasn't smiling.

In his fist was a crumpled cream envelope, and I knew the cardinal stamp on it.

His eyes went from the house to my face.

"Are you Leah Halvorsen?" he said.

I said I was.

He held the envelope up between us, and his hand was shaking.

"Then you're the one who mailed my sister to the whole county."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend