After My Miscarriage, My Husband Locked Me Out novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Carriage House

Dr. Tarleton found me in the parking garage at the end of my shift.

I was sitting in the driver's seat of Roz's spare car with the door open.

I had been sitting there ten minutes without turning the key.

"You're blocking the stairwell," he said.

"I'm parked."

"You're a hazard. Sit up straight."

I almost laughed. He leaned a shoulder on the pillar and waited until I did.

"Roz tells me her daughter has a sleepover on Friday and her husband's back is out," he said. "She also tells me you're on a pull-out couch with a metal bar in it."

"Roz talks a lot."

"Roz talks to me in the break room because she's trying to make a point." He took a key from his coat pocket and held it out. It was an old brass key on a loop of leather. "I have a carriage house behind my aunt's place in Shadyside.

"It was her studio. It has a bed, a bathroom and a door that locks from the inside.

"She left me the property, and nobody has used it in two years."

"I can't take that."

"I'll charge you rent."

"How much?"

"One dollar a month."

"That's not rent."

"It's a lease. I want it in writing." He didn't smile, but the corner of his mouth moved. "I have terms."

"Of course you do."

"One. We don't talk about the signing at my table, because I'd like at least one room in my life that doesn't have your husband in it. Two. You don't owe me anything. Not thanks, not company, not conversation. Three." He stopped. "Nobody in this arrangement is a rebound. If either of us starts to be one, we say so out loud."

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