In The Storm, My Husband Locked Me Out And Chose Her novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Seat's Lorna's
At the airport curb in a storm, Gwendolyn's husband locks the car door on her and drives off with his ex; her card is declined.
The car door locked under my hand while forty people watched.
I was standing at the airport arrivals curb in a nor'easter, thirty-two weeks pregnant, with my suitcase in one hand.
The other hand was on the passenger handle of my husband's car.
Through the wet glass, Leander looked at me.
Lorna was sitting in my seat.
She had my decaf in her lap, the one I had asked Leander to bring me.
I had just flown home from burying my grandmother.
Leander hadn't come to the funeral.
He had said his work gala needed him.
The window came down two inches.
"It's 6:34, Gwen," he said.
"My phone says 6:27." I held it up so he could see the screen. "I ran the whole way from baggage claim."
"Your phone is always wrong," Leander said. "Buy a watch."
Rain ran down the back of my coat and into my shoes.
Leander had one rule, from our first year of marriage.
If I was late, my seat went to Lorna, his former fiancée.
He called it a joke.
He had used it four times, at dinners and at a charity brunch, and every time Lorna had happened to be nearby.
I had never once been late by my own clock.
"Leander, I'm pregnant," I said. "It's pouring."
Lorna leaned across him toward the gap in the window.
"Gwendolyn, I'm so sorry," she said. "I only came to keep him company. Leander, let her in, I'll sit in the back."
She sounded like she meant it.
It was the same voice she had used last week, when she sat on my sofa and set up my new phone for me.
She had even texted me from the car at 6:20: Take your time, don't rush in the rain! xx
I saw that text again now, on the screen in my hand.
"No," Leander said to her. "The rule is the rule."
He didn't say it loudly.
He never did.
A woman behind me with a rolling bag had her phone up, filming.
So did the man beside her.
A traffic officer at the end of the curb looked at us, looked at the line of cars behind us, and waved them on.
"Leander, please," I said.
I knocked on the glass with my knuckles.
He looked straight ahead.
Then the window went up, and the locks clicked a second time.
The car pulled away from the curb.
Lorna's face turned toward me in the rear window.
She was holding my coffee in both hands.
My phone buzzed.
Leander: Seat's Lorna's. You know the rule. Get yourself a ride.
I stood there with the water pooling around my suitcase wheels.
For three years I had been the one who ran faster.
I had left work early and skipped lunch, and once I had gotten out of a taxi on a bridge and walked.
I had done it to keep my place.
I had been waiting for him to look at me and choose me, and I was done waiting.
So I stopped.
"Honey." The woman with the rolling bag was beside me, holding her umbrella over my head. "I got all of it. Every second. Do you want me to send it to you?"
"Yes," I said.
My voice came out steady, which surprised me.
I gave her my number, and she sent it before I had finished spelling it.
Then I called Maeve.
My sister was on her break at the hospital, with a mouth full of something.
"Where are you?" she said. "Is Leander there?"
"He left," I said. "He left me at the curb, Maeve."
There was a silence on the line.
Then I heard a chair scrape, and a door, and her voice dropped low and flat.
"Go inside the terminal," she said. "Sit down. Do not call him. I'm getting someone to cover my shift, and I'm coming to get you."
"It's an hour from Rockport."
"Then sit for an hour."
I wheeled my suitcase in through the sliding doors.
My feet hurt, and the baby had shoved a heel under my ribs.
I was soaked through and shaking, and the terminal was cold.
There was a café by the exit, and I stepped up to the counter and ordered a hot tea and a sandwich.
I held out my card.
The clerk slid it through, frowned, and tried again.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," she said. "It's been declined."
"That's the joint card. There's plenty on it."
"It says the account is frozen."
I stared at the little screen.
Leander had done it from the car.
He had frozen the account before the car even left the curb.
I paid for the tea with the cash in my coat pocket.
It left me with three dollars and a baby due in eight weeks.
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