Chapter 5: What Cissy Said

Lydia went down to the garage at midnight, wearing his gray sweater over her nightgown.

She had told herself she would not go.

Hayden was leaning against the black sedan with his hands braced behind him, and he straightened when he saw her.

"You came."

"You wrote me a note under a tablecloth," she said. "I was curious."

He almost smiled.

It left his face at once.

"Say what you were told," Lydia said. "You first."

"A week after you left, Cissy came into my office and sat down."

His voice was flat.

"She said you'd called her, and you wanted me to know you were done."

"Done."

"You wanted nothing. Not a call, not a visit, not a letter."

"And you were filing for divorce, and I was to let it go through."

Lydia shook her head slowly.

"I told her to tell you I needed time."

"She said those were your words."

"They were not. I said time."

"Then why," Hayden said, and his voice cracked, "did you never call me?"

"Not once in three years, Lydia. I'd have crossed the country."

"You never did."

The words came out of her at last, hard and quiet.

"I waited for you. I thought you'd walk into the clinic one day, and say sorry, and take me home."

"She told me you didn't want me there."

"And she told me you wanted me gone."

They looked at each other across the oil-stained concrete.

Hayden took out his phone and dialed.

"Hayden, it's midnight," Lydia said.

"I know what time it is."

Cissy answered on the second ring.

She came into the garage five minutes later in a coat over her pajamas, her hair loose, her face pale.

"What's wrong? Is it Henrietta?"

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