The Husband Who Lied to Me novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Passcode Was My Birthday
Ruby's best friend announces she is pregnant and leaves her phone on the sink; Ruby reads her husband's messages, plays the proof in the restaurant, leaves her ring on the check, and meets Nolan outside, who asks her to wait until after her birthday.
Kristen told me she was pregnant at a window table in a crowded brunch place on Alberta Street, in front of a full Sunday brunch crowd.
Before that she had been teasing me that in six weeks I would own the whole company and she would have to start calling me boss.
Then she went white and said, "I'm going to be sick," and ran for the ladies' room.
I followed her with a stack of napkins.
She had been my best friend for ten years.
She had held my hair back at nineteen and given the toast at my wedding.
I wanted to be the one holding hers.
In the restroom she shut herself into the far stall and I heard her retch.
"Take your time," I said. "I'm right here."
Her phone sat on the edge of the sink, face up, where she had dropped it.
It buzzed once.
The screen lit with a contact I'd never seen: Dental Billing.
Under it, the preview: Did you tell her yet? I'm outside in ten.
I don't know why I picked it up.
I know why I knew the code.
Kristen had used my birthday as her passcode since sophomore year, and she had laughed about it every time I teased her.
Zero, six, one, four.
The screen opened.
"Ruby?" she called through the door. "Are you out there?"
"Still here," I said. "Breathe."
I stepped into the next stall and slid the bolt.
The thread under Dental Billing was a year long.
Lunch plans. A hotel bar in Beaverton. A photo of a grey Volvo wagon in a parking garage.
My husband drove that Volvo.
His name was not on the thread, only that fake billing office, and every message under it was in his voice.
Nolan had written to her: I told her supper at my mother's. She believes anything I say with that sweet face.
Kristen had answered: Poor Ruby. She makes it so easy.
My hands were shaking so hard I nearly dropped the phone.
Then I saw the video.
It was ten days old, sent at eleven at night.
I knew that night.
Nolan had told me he was at a supplier dinner in Salem and that I should not wait up.
I touched the screen.
The picture swung and settled.
It was the back seat of the Volvo, parked in the dark under a streetlight.
My blue wool scarf hung over the headrest, the one I had left in his car in March.
Kristen was laughing, and my husband was on top of her.
He said, "Does it bother you, thinking of her at home waiting up?"
Kristen said, "Never. She's going to be fine. She's going to be rich."
They both laughed at that.
I played it twice.
On the second time through I held my own phone up under the stall door and recorded the screen from start to finish.
Next to me the toilet flushed.
"Ruby?" Kristen's voice had gone small. "I think I need a minute. Can you tell the waiter I'll be right out?"
"Sure," I said.
I came out of the stall and set her phone back on the sink exactly as it had been, face up.
I washed my hands.
I looked at the woman in the mirror, and she looked calm, which scared me more than anything else that day.
"I'm so happy for you," I called through the door. "Truly."
"Thank you," Kristen said, and she sounded like she might cry. "You're the only family I have, Ruby. I would never do anything to hurt you."
"I know," I said.
I walked back to our table.
Our waiter was refilling the water glasses.
Around us were maybe forty people with eggs and mimosas, the sort of crowd that goes quiet for a fight and loves it.
I propped my phone against the water carafe and turned the volume all the way up.
I pressed play.
My husband's voice came out of it, loud and clear in the dining room.
"Does it bother you, thinking of her at home waiting up?"
At the next table a woman set down her fork.
Kristen's laugh came next.
"Never. She's going to be fine. She's going to be rich."
The room turned to look at me.
Kristen came out of the ladies' room drying her hands, and she heard her own voice from across the restaurant.
She stopped in the middle of the floor.
I stood up.
"Congratulations," I said. "Is it his?"
"Ruby." Her face crumpled. "Ruby, please, let me explain."
I took the little gift bag she had brought me, the one that held a baby's onesie with Auntie Ruby stitched across it, and set it in front of her chair.
Then I pulled off my wedding ring.
I laid it on top of the check.
"Brunch is on Nolan," I said.
I left the restaurant with every head in the room following me.
Outside the sun was out and the air smelled like rain on hot pavement.
A grey Volvo wagon was turning into the lot.
It pulled up at the curb in front of me, and my husband got out with his sleeves rolled and his smile already on.
He had told me he was in Salem.
He saw my face.
The smile went, and what came after it was fear.
He took a step toward me and put his hands up.
"Ruby," he said. "Babe. Don't do anything yet."
"Don't touch me."
"Please. Whatever you think you saw." He was talking fast. "Just wait until after the thirtieth."
I looked at him.
I had no idea what my birthday had to do with his lie.
I meant to find out.
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