The Wife He Left Behind novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Left Behind
On the last Tuesday of October, a year to the day, I rode the three-ten ferry to Bainbridge with a baby on my hip.
It was cold and clear, and the water was dark and flat.
Gulls rode the wind off the stern.
The deck was nearly empty except for a man in a Mariners cap and, on the next bench, Camille, with her daughter asleep in a sling.
She had a paper cup of tea and a library book she hadn't opened.
"You're staring," she said.
"I'm observing."
"You're a court reporter. You can't help it."
"She's got your hair."
"She's got his chin."
"She has her own chin," I said. "It's a good chin."
Camille looked down at the sleeping face, and the corner of her mouth went up.
We had Sundays, and we had the occasional Wednesday, and one Christmas Eve at my mother's that I would not describe to anyone.
She had a job at a ferry terminal office now, working for a manager who thought the world of her.
She never mentioned the ring.
I still wasn't her friend.
But I'd handed her the baby to hold last week while I found my keys, and neither of us had made anything of it.
"Excuse me," said the man in the Mariners cap.
He had come over, slowly, holding his coffee.
"I'm sorry to bother you. Aren't you the cake lady?"
I closed my eyes.
"I saw the thing online," he said. "Last winter. Somebody put it up. 'Wife shows up at the company dinner with the receipts.' It had about four million views."
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