My Husband Exiled Me to the Ranch of My Dreams novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Portrait
On Labor Day, Audra photographs her husband's reunited family while movers empty her house, hands every child the paperwork that runs their lives, and calls her own lawyer; the lawyer asks who pays the ranch's taxes, and Audra has never seen a bill.
On Labor Day, I stood on the front lawn and held up a phone to take a family portrait I wasn't in.
Curtis stood in the middle with Dina's arm hooked through his.
Dina was his first wife, and she had been back for six weeks after twelve years away.
The four children I had raised were packed in around her.
"You take the best pictures, Audra," my oldest stepdaughter said. "Back up a little more."
I backed up to the curb.
On the screen they were a complete family, and I was the one pressing the button.
"Thank you for doing this," Dina called. "Honestly, I don't know what we'd do without you."
She said it so warmly that I almost smiled.
Behind them, two movers carried a box out of my front door.
It was marked with my handwriting. Audra, books.
A truck was parked at the curb with a Wyoming address taped to the cab window.
Curtis came across the grass with his voice low.
"It's just a photo for the kids. We'll always be a family."
He handed me a blue folder.
Inside was a separation agreement, and the date on the first page was from last spring.
Under its terms, I got one thing.
The old Dunning ranch on Clear Creek, Wyoming, my grandfather's place, which Curtis had bought back at auction the year we married.
He had called it my wedding present and promised we would go when the kids were grown.
In twelve years we never went.
I looked at the four faces on the lawn.
Not one of them said a word.
So I did what I always did and went to work.
Tanner was sitting on the living room rug with a game controller.
Dina leaned in the doorway, asking what he wanted for dinner.
I set a folder on his knee.
"Your scholarship file. This year's renewal is filled out, and the dates you can't miss are in red."
"Got it," he said, and did not look up.
He dropped it beside the console.
It slid open, and three months of my phone calls to the aid office spilled across the carpet.
"Forget all that," Dina said, laughing. "Mom's here now. We're going to pick up dinner."
Tanner grinned.
I picked the papers up myself.
My oldest stepdaughter, Sierra, was in the garden, testing centerpieces for her October wedding.
I gave her the planner.
"The venue balance is due September twelfth or they cancel. The photographer holds your date until next Monday."
She flipped two pages and shut it.
Then she saw the tablet under my arm.
"Give me that. Mom wants the old family pictures."
"It's mine."
"Don't be petty about a few photos."
That tablet held twelve years of birthdays, braces and fevers, and every picture on it was one I had taken.
"I can send copies," I said.
She pulled it out of my hands.
The planner slid out from under her arm and a few pages landed in the grass.
She stepped over them.
Curtis came out of the house with an external hard drive.
"I need you to sort the family videos into one clean collection for Dina. Take out the parts where you appear."
"Clean," I said.
"The kids need memories without distractions. Don't make Dina uncomfortable."
I looked at the drive.
Then he pressed it into my hand, and I took it.
Half an hour later, he called me into his study to go over the agreement.
I had already marked every line.
"I need a full list of what we own," I said. "And a title search on the ranch. I need to know about any liens or back taxes."
"I've always taken care of the ranch taxes myself, Audra."
"Then it should be easy to show me."
His phone lit up with Dina's name.
She was down the hall, texting to ask which closet would be hers.
He answered it right away and said, "Pick whichever one you like."
When he hung up, his face had gone hard.
"If you fight me over money, the kids will think you're getting back at them."
"Who made it ugly?"
"Don't be dramatic. You don't even understand these clauses. You'll come back and ask me how they work."
"I'll have my lawyer contact you."
He laughed.
That was when I understood he had not asked me in here to talk.
He expected me to sign and then fix whatever was left, the way I always had.
In the guest room, the one room they hadn't emptied, I opened my laptop.
I wrote down every insurance policy, every prescription allergy, every password, the tax folder, the water shutoff and the main breaker.
I printed it and bound it.
On the cover I wrote: Household Operations Manual.
I did not sort the videos.
I checked that the originals still sat on the family cloud, and I wiped the drive clean.
I put it in the box with the manual, and that was the last thing I left them.
Then I called a law firm that had never met Curtis.
"My name is Audra Dunning. I need someone to review a separation agreement and search the title on a ranch in Wyoming."
The lawyer who took the call was kind and quick.
"Before we start, I have one question. Who pays the property taxes on that ranch?"
"My husband does. He's paid them every year."
"Do you have the bills?"
I opened my mouth to say yes.
In twelve years, I had never seen one.
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