His Other Wife novel · Chapter 2 of 16

Chapter 2: Hers Has Dad's Picture on It

Clerks mock Ellie as a fake wife, a car hits her outside, and in the hospital Jonathan hides their certificate until six-year-old Noah says Aunt Clarissa has one with Dad's picture on it.

I read the screen three times.

Kendrick, Jonathan J. Married. Spouse: Wynn, Clarissa R.

The date was eight years ago.

One day before our wedding.

"There has to be a mistake," I heard myself say. "We have a son. He's six. Can't you just print a new one?"

The clerk took her glasses off and let them hang on the chain.

"Ma'am, you can't reissue a marriage that never happened."

She slid my certificate back across the counter.

I stood there holding it.

Eight years.

I had worked double shifts so Jonathan could finish his doctorate.

I had sold my grandmother's ring to pay for his first recording session.

I had given birth to his son and nearly bled to death doing it.

And the whole time, I had been the girlfriend.

Behind me, somebody laughed.

Two clerks at the back desk were leaning their heads together, not even trying to whisper.

"Jonathan Kendrick? The composer? The one who did the score for that movie?"

"That's him. His wife is Clarissa Wynn. She played at the Kennedy Center last spring."

"So what's she doing here with a fake certificate?"

The younger one wrinkled her nose.

"Can you smell her? She reeks of fryer oil."

"Imagine being married to a man like that and thinking he'd pick you."

"Did you see the date on that thing? She's been carrying a fake around for eight years."

A man waiting in line behind me took a step away, like whatever I had was catching.

I turned around and looked at them.

They looked right back at me and didn't stop smiling.

I walked out with the certificate crushed in my fist.

Later I found four red half-moons in my palm where my nails had gone in.

I didn't see the light change.

I heard the horn.

Then the whole world went white.

When I woke up, there was a plastic tube taped to the back of my hand and a ceiling full of fluorescent lights.

My ribs hurt when I breathed.

Jonathan was sitting beside the bed in his good coat, talking to a nurse in his warm, reasonable voice.

"She's allergic to penicillin. And she can't sleep on her left side, it hurts her shoulder."

The nurse smiled at him like he was a saint.

He saw my eyes open and grabbed my hand.

"Ellie. Oh, thank God. You scared me to death."

He pressed his lips to my knuckles.

"What were you doing walking into traffic? Are you trying to kill me?"

He looked exactly like the man I married.

Except his eyes kept flicking to my other hand.

It was empty.

"Jonathan. Where's our marriage certificate?"

His grip went stiff for half a second.

Then he smiled.

"I didn't see it. It must have gotten lost at the scene."

"You were in the ambulance with me?"

"I got there right after." He squeezed my fingers. "You were bleeding all over the road, Ellie. Do you really think I was looking for a piece of paper?"

I looked at the pocket of his coat.

There was a hard rectangle in it, the size of a folded plastic sleeve.

I made myself smile back at him.

"Then let's order a new one. As soon as I'm out of here."

"Sure. Sure, of course."

"Because if we don't have a certificate," I said, lightly, like a joke, "that makes me the other woman, doesn't it?"

A drop of sweat ran down from his hairline.

"Let's talk about it when you're better. Just rest."

The door banged open.

Noah came racing in from the waiting room, where Jonathan had parked him with a juice box, his backpack still on and his shoelaces untied.

"Mom! Dad said you got hit by a car! Did it hurt? Did you see the car?"

He climbed right up onto the edge of the bed.

"Easy, buddy," Jonathan said. "Mom's ribs are sore."

Noah didn't listen. He never did when he was excited.

"What were you talking about? A marriage certificate?"

"Nothing," Jonathan said quickly.

"I know what that is," Noah said proudly. "Dad has one in his office drawer."

Jonathan went white.

"And Aunt Clarissa has one too," Noah said. "Hers has Dad's picture on it. She showed me."

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