Chapter 19: No, on the Church Steps

"No," I said.

Nolan's eyes opened.

"What?"

"No."

I said it loud enough for the back row.

His smile held for a second, out of habit, and then it started to slide.

"Ruby, honey, you picked it up."

"I picked it up so I could hand it back."

I turned to Marlene.

She stood two steps above me with her cane, her pearls and her two friends.

She looked at me the way she had on the night of the slap.

I took her hand, the one on the cane.

I put the ring in her palm and folded her fingers over it.

"A wife keeps her husband," I said. "You keep it. You raised him."

"How dare you..."

"The hearing is on the twelfth, Marlene, and he knows what he'll lose there."

The women beside her stepped half a pace away.

The priest had come to the doors.

"Nolan is begging in front of your church," I said, to the steps and the parish. "So I'll answer in front of your church."

"This isn't the place," Nolan said.

"You picked the place."

"Ruby..."

"He cheated on me with my best friend, who is eleven weeks pregnant with his child."

Nobody on the steps moved.

"Ruby," Nolan said.

I pointed at the doors.

"He is asking a court to call me insane. The doctor in his petition has never met me."

The priest looked at Nolan.

"His mother signed a paper that says I attacked her."

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