My Husband Sent the Helicopter to Save a Dog, So I Signed novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Later

Mitchell dismisses her grandmother's death without hearing it, calls the divorce a shock for her manners, and drops her flowers. She invites him to Napa to read what she sends, and Odette texts that she already knows about the file.

Mitchell crossed the lot with a bouquet held out in front of him.

Calla lilies, Nonna's favorite, from the florist who always got my order wrong.

"Odette said you'd be hard on yourself," he said. "So I came to get you."

He kissed my cheek.

He didn't look at my hands.

Behind me, Alec had gone very still.

Mitchell noticed him then, and his smile thinned.

"Driscoll. Your resignation hit my inbox at seven. I haven't read it, but Odette told me what it says."

"I'm sure she did," Alec said.

"You're off payroll. I'd hate to be unclear."

"I know."

Across the road, a fire crew was refilling their water tanks at a hydrant.

Six of them had turned to watch us.

Mitchell saw them and lowered his voice, the way he does when he wants to look reasonable.

"Mari, is this about the dog?"

I stared at him.

"Biscuit is fine, by the way," he said. "Odette says you asked. It was a minor call, and the machine was nearby. I don't see why it's a thing."

"The machine was nearby," I said.

"Pilots reroute all the time."

"Where were you at four o'clock that morning, Mitchell?"

He frowned and checked his phone.

"Seattle. The investor dinner. Why?"

"Then who authorized the redirect?"

"Odette, I assume. She does the flights. Mari, I have a board meeting at three. Can we do this over dinner?"

His thumb was already moving on the screen.

A plain, cold thought came to me.

He had been asleep in a Seattle hotel, and his name was still on the form.

I put the thought down fast.

He had let Odette sign for him for years, and my grandmother had died of it.

That was his fault either way.

"Nonna's dead," I said.

My voice carried across the lot.

Mitchell held up one finger, still reading.

"Mm-hm," he said. "One second."

Alec breathed out hard through his nose.

Mitchell's phone lit up with Odette's name, and he took the call.

"Yes. Three-thirty, with the board. Put the Napa packet on top and I'll sign it in the car."

I watched him tell her yes.

I had said it to his face, in a bakery doorway, on the phone, and in a text from the back of a fire truck.

None of it had reached him.

I took out my phone.

My fingers wouldn't work, so I used the side of my hand.

I sent him Alec's audio and the console screenshot, with one line.

*Listen to this before the 30th. All of it.*

His phone buzzed in his palm.

He looked down, saw my name and a file, and slid the notification away with his thumb.

"Later," he said into the call. "Not you, Odette. Marisa."

He turned back to me.

"I'm glad you're being reasonable. The papers were Odette's idea. She thought you needed a shock. Honestly, I almost didn't sign."

"You almost didn't sign."

"I'm joking, Mari. I signed, you signed, and now we're done being dramatic. Come to dinner tonight and we'll talk about the trip."

That was when I understood what the divorce was to him.

A shock, to teach me manners.

He thought the papers were a joke between us, and that Odette had been clever.

Behind him, the firefighters were still watching.

One of them took off his helmet.

He was the captain who had pulled me out of that road.

He looked at Mitchell, then at my hands, and he didn't put the helmet back on.

"Ma'am," he called across the lot. "Is that man your husband?"

"For now," I said.

The captain wrote something on his glove with a marker.

I think it was Mitchell's license plate.

"I'll come to Napa on the 30th," I said, loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Of course you will. I booked the jet."

"You come too, and you read what I send you first. Every word. Out loud, in front of everyone."

"Why would I read it out loud?"

"Because on the 30th I'm going to say something I only get to say once."

Mitchell laughed and put the bouquet in my arms.

My hands were bandaged, so I dropped it.

The lilies fell across the black asphalt.

He didn't bend to pick them up.

"You're being dramatic," he said, almost fondly. "See you on the 30th."

He got in his SUV and drove away with the phone at his ear.

Alec picked up the flowers one at a time and laid them on his tailgate.

"I need to tell you something about that man," he said.

My phone buzzed against my hip.

It was Odette.

*Heard you sent Mitchell a file, honey. Come by the office before you do anything. Let me explain.*

I had sent it minutes ago, and he had never opened it.

She already knew.

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