Still Recovering After Giving Birth, I Heard My Husband Saying "I Love You" to the Night Nurse I Had Hired to Care for Our Baby Through the Baby Monitor novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Day Four

Hattie went back to her shift at five, because the ambulance company does not care about family court.

She kissed the top of my head at the door.

"Lock it behind me," she said. "And if Ridgely stays past ten, I want a full report."

"He's not staying."

"Then he'll leave very slowly."

When the door closed, I took out my phone and read Haley's text again.

Don't. She'll take her.

I texted back a single word, Where, and watched it sit unanswered.

Then I carried Stella upstairs and checked every window latch in Hattie's house.

I put the car keys on the hook by the door, where I could reach them in the dark.

If Ward's mother wanted my daughter, she would have to come through a locked door and a dog.

He came at seven with a paper sack and a folded newspaper, and the dog met him on the porch and leaned on his leg.

"Soup," he said. "My mother's recipe. It's the only thing I make."

"You don't have to feed me."

"You're feeding a baby. That's my reason, and I'm sticking to it."

I laughed, which hurt, and held the door.

We ate at Hattie's kitchen table with Stella asleep upstairs in the portable crib, and the monitor on the counter showed her chest going up and down in gray.

He had made the soup too salty, and I ate all of it.

When we were done he cleared the bowls without asking and washed them, and I sat and watched his back.

His shirt pulled across his shoulders when he reached for the tap.

I looked at the dog instead.

"Show me your hand," he said, drying his own.

"Which one?"

"The left. You've held it like it hurt since this morning."

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