Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Dare Behind the Door
Cora hears Sabrina's dare and Ross's yes, decides not to stop him, and calls a divorce lawyer from the garage.
Three positive pregnancy tests were in my purse when I heard my husband say yes to a wedding that wasn't ours.
I was standing outside a private dining room downtown, with my hand on the brass door handle.
Behind the door, Sabrina Keene laughed.
"Tomorrow you're my husband for twenty-four hours, Ross," she said. "That's my dare."
Someone inside whistled.
Twelve of Ross's oldest friends had gathered for the yearly party on the last night of March.
Sabrina had started it when they were eighteen, and every year she picked the dare.
In fifteen years Ross had never once refused her.
When I told him once that it hurt, he kissed my forehead and said I was keeping score on a game.
Now I was standing here with the news I had waited four years to give him.
This morning I was twelve days late.
I took one test on the bathroom floor, and then two more, and I cried at every one.
By noon I had booked a blood test for the next morning and bought the smallest pair of white socks I had ever seen.
I was going to give them to him on Saturday at our anniversary dinner, with a dessert the restaurant had agreed to bring out.
Tonight I had only meant to catch him for five minutes and drive home with him.
"The chapel at Willow Creek," Sabrina went on. "Vows, rings, a photographer, dinner, and the honeymoon suite."
Glasses clinked.
"The officiant is licensed this year, so nobody fakes it. Bring your driver's license, because they check everyone at the chapel door. And every one of you signs the register as a witness."
Someone groaned and someone cheered.
"And for twenty-four hours," Sabrina said, "no calls to Cora."
The room roared.
My fingers went white on the handle.
I waited for Ross to laugh it off and say no.
That morning he had kissed me goodbye and reminded me about Saturday's reservation.
"Come on, Ross," Sabrina said. "Don't tell me marriage made you boring."
A chair scraped.
Then my husband laughed, the easy laugh he used on my jokes. "What time?"
I stopped breathing.
"You're serious?" Sabrina sounded thrilled.
"It's a dare," Ross said. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you have a wife," said one of his friends.
For one second I waited for Ross to remember me.
"After every failed round Cora apologized to me," Ross said, and his voice came through the door easily. "She thinks it was generous of me to stay. Trust me, she's the one who needs this marriage."
I looked at the grain of the wood.
The failed procedures.
The nights I had cried into his shirt after every negative.
He had taken the worst years of our marriage and turned them into proof that I would never leave.
"So that's a yes," Sabrina said. "I just texted you the booking link. Tap it to confirm."
A soft chime sounded, then the tap of a thumb on a screen.
"Done," Ross said.
Inside, the glasses and the jokes started up again.
Someone asked where Ross could rent a suit that fit.
"I still have my wedding one," Ross said, and they cheered him again.
I let go of the handle and stepped back.
In my purse the socks and the tests lay together under my wallet.
I had pictured giving him that news in our kitchen, with the lights low.
I had pictured his face.
I wasn't going to give him that now.
The elevator at the end of the hall was open, and I stepped in.
My phone buzzed before the doors closed.
[Party's running late. Don't wait up.]
He had said yes to marrying her less than a minute ago, and he was already lying to me.
A second message came.
[Love you.]
Through the gap in the doors I saw the room one last time.
Sabrina stood at Ross's side with her hand on his arm while his friends slapped his back.
I typed: [Have fun. See you at home.]
The doors shut.
So I decided not to stop him.
I would let him walk all the way into it, and I would be gone before he walked out.
In the parking garage I sat in my car and called a number I had saved two years ago for my sister.
Geraldine Penrose answered on the fourth ring.
"I want a divorce," I said. "Before he gets home tomorrow."
Geraldine did not ask me to think about it.
"Where is your husband right now?"
"Toasting his wedding."
"His what?"
I told her.
She was quiet for a while.
"One question before anything else, Cora," she said. "Does he know you're pregnant?"
"No."
"Good," Geraldine said. "Then he doesn't hear it from anyone until I say so."
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