The Husband Who Lied to Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: A Toast for Marlene

Ruby revokes the March paper, then plays the video at Marlene's birthday dinner in front of twenty-four guests, and a stranger at the back follows her out: Nolan's brother.

On Monday my grandfather's lawyer cancelled the March paper in her office in about ten minutes.

She had me sign a notice that ended Nolan's right to act for me, and she sent it to the buyer in Seattle while I watched.

"Did he say why he wanted this?" she asked.

"He said it was for the refinance."

She turned the page toward me without a word.

It said nothing about a house anywhere.

On Saturday I put on the green dress Nolan liked best and drove to Lake Oswego.

His mother was turning sixty-three, and he had called me six times that week to tell me the dinner was still on.

I did not answer him.

I was not going for him.

The steakhouse had given Marlene its private room at the back, with long tables, white roses and a seating card for twenty-four.

I stood in the doorway and nobody looked up.

Marlene Prewitt sat at the head in a lavender dress with her silver hair done and her pearls on.

Nolan sat at her left.

On her right, in a cream dress with one hand resting low on her stomach, sat Kristen.

My seat card was at the far end, beside the kitchen door.

Marlene had her glass up.

"To family," she said. "To the people who stay when it's hard."

Everyone drank.

Nolan was the first to see me.

He put his glass down slowly.

"Everyone," he said, "this is Ruby. She hasn't been well this week. Please be gentle."

Twenty-four faces turned toward the door.

Some of them were already sorry for me.

That was what he had told them.

I walked the length of the room, past the white roses, until I was standing at the head of the table.

"I'm perfectly well," I said. "I just have one question for the birthday girl."

Marlene smiled with her mouth only.

"Ruby, dear, this isn't the place."

"It's your party, Marlene, so it's the place. On the fourth, Nolan told me he was at your house for supper. Was he?"

"Of course he was," she said at once. "He comes every Thursday."

"He didn't."

"I beg your pardon."

I took out my phone.

I have his words to Kristen from that night, and he wrote, "I told her supper at my mother's. She believes anything I say with that sweet face."

The room had gone so quiet I heard ice move in somebody's glass.

Kristen's hand came off her stomach.

"You lied to me just now," I said to Marlene. "In front of all of them. You knew where he was."

Marlene put down her glass.

She stood up.

She was a head shorter than me, and she walked around the end of the table anyway.

"A wife keeps her husband," she said, very softly. "If you couldn't, that's on you."

Then she slapped me.

It was not hard.

It was loud, and she meant it to be.

My cheek went hot, and somewhere behind me a chair scraped.

I looked at her for a moment.

"Thank you," I said. "Now everyone has heard you say it."

At the back of the room somebody laughed, once, low and short.

I turned to the table.

"Nolan has been sleeping with Kristen for a year. She's ten weeks pregnant. I found out last Sunday on her phone, and he told his mother to lie to me about it. I'm leaving now, so you can finish your steaks."

Nobody said anything.

Nolan was on his feet.

"Ruby, sit down. You're embarrassing yourself."

"No," I said. "You were supposed to be the one embarrassed."

Kristen was crying.

She said my name once, and I did not turn around.

I walked out through the dining room with my cheek burning and my back straight.

In the lobby by the coat check a man was leaning against the wall with his arms folded.

He was tall and broad in a canvas jacket that did not belong in that restaurant, and he had a crooked nose and a very small smile.

He had been standing at the back of the private room.

He was the one who had laughed.

I stopped walking.

"That was the best birthday toast I ever heard," he said.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Russ." He pushed off the wall. "Nolan's brother. The one he says is in prison."

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