He Was Reborn to Claim Me, But I'm Already Married novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: My Wife

Audra takes Jocelyn out of Leighton's grip in front of Boston, and Ethan Sturgis meets them at the gate. That night a white rose lies on the Beacon Hill step and Leighton's car waits at the curb.

I did not wait for the applause to die down.

I crossed the lawn in front of sixty girls and their mothers and took my sister's free hand.

"We're leaving," I said.

Leighton's fingers were still around Jocelyn's, with the rose crushed between them.

"She hasn't been introduced to my mother properly," he said.

"She's been introduced to your whole garden," I said. "That's plenty."

Cornelia Prescott came up beside him, glowing.

"Don't run off, girls. Jocelyn, darling, you must come to dinner on Sunday. The whole family will be there."

Jocelyn looked at the rose in her hand.

Then she laid it on the garden table next to Cornelia's lemonade, gently.

"Thank you, Mrs. Prescott," she said. "I'll think about it."

She walked away with her hand in mine, and she did not look back.

The whole garden watched us go.

Behind me I heard Leighton's shoes on the gravel, quick and heavy.

I did not turn around until the gate.

Ethan was leaning against the side of a gray car in the lane, in a dark sweater, with his keys in one hand.

He had come to pick me up, the way he said he would, an hour early.

He saw my face first.

Then he saw Leighton coming down the path, and he straightened up very slowly.

"Hello, wife," Ethan said.

He said it loud enough for the gate, the lane and half the garden.

He put his free hand on the small of my back and kissed my temple.

He had never touched me that way before, and I felt it.

Leighton stopped three feet away.

"Ethan Sturgis," he said, like it was a bad taste.

"Leighton Prescott," Ethan said. "I'd say it's nice to see you, but I was raised not to lie."

He looked down at my wrist.

The marks of four fingers had come up purple.

His face did not change, but something behind it went very quiet.

"Get in the car," he said to me, gently. "Both of you."

"Sturgis," Leighton said. "She isn't who you think she is."

"Good," said Ethan. "She's better."

He opened the back door for Jocelyn, then the front door for me.

Leighton stood in the lane with his hands at his sides and watched us pull away.

In the mirror I could see him standing there until the road turned.

For a few blocks nobody spoke.

Jocelyn sat in the back with her clutch on her knees, staring out the window.

"You were our witness at city hall," Ethan said finally. "We've never had a real conversation."

"You signed your name like a man buying a used car," Jocelyn said. "I remember it fondly."

"It was a very good used car," said Ethan.

Jocelyn laughed once, and it sounded tired.

I turned around in my seat.

"Jocelyn. Why did you say no?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You mouthed it at me across a garden."

She tapped her nails on the clasp of her bag.

"Not now," she said. "Please."

"Is he someone you know?"

"I've never met him in my life," Jocelyn said.

She said it too fast.

I let it drop, because she was white to the lips.

"Can I stay with you two for a few days?" Jocelyn asked. "Don't ask why yet."

"The yellow room is made up," Ethan said.

"You have a yellow room?"

"My grandmother likes to be ready for anything."

"I like her already," Jocelyn said.

Then she leaned forward between our seats.

"Ethan. Your wife's wrist is purple. I'm only saying it because I don't think she will."

"I saw," said Ethan.

His hands were tight on the wheel.

Beacon Hill came up around us in the dusk, the old brick and the gas lamps, and by the time we parked Jocelyn had fallen asleep against the window.

Ethan's grandmother had left the porch light on.

I carried Jocelyn's bag upstairs, and Ethan carried Jocelyn, who woke up enough to complain about it.

We tucked her into the yellow room.

Then we stood in the hall outside the closed door, not touching, with the whole day between us.

"You did that on purpose," I said. "You came an hour early."

"I wanted to see the garden," said Ethan. "I wanted to see what you were afraid of."

"I'm not afraid."

"Your hands were shaking when you got in the car."

I looked down.

They were.

He took one of them in both of his, turned it over, and held it until it stopped.

"Goodnight, Audra," he said.

He went to his room, and I went to mine.

At midnight I got up for water and pulled back the curtain.

A black car was parked at the curb beneath the gas lamp with its engine off.

On our front step lay a single white rose.

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