The Wife He Left Behind novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Her Folder

My thirteen-week appointment was at ten on Tuesday, in a clinic on the ninth floor of a medical building near the hospital.

I went alone.

Stellan had a ferry shift.

My mother had a hair appointment she wanted to cancel, and I told her not to.

I signed in at the desk and took a clipboard.

Then I sat down in the corner of the waiting room with a glass of water.

The room was full of couples.

A woman with a toddler on her lap.

A man holding his wife's purse and looking proud and terrified.

I turned my phone face down on my knee and opened the voice memo anyway.

It was a habit now.

At ten past, the elevator chimed, and a woman in a camel coat came in with a leather bag over her arm.

She had glossy auburn hair and her hand was pressed to the small of her back.

Her stomach was round and high under the coat.

I had seen her shape through a window on Westlake.

I had never seen her face from six feet away.

It was a pretty face. Green eyes, a nice mouth, and the kind of skin that has never been bothered by weather.

She walked to the desk, gave her name, and turned around to find a seat.

She saw me.

For a moment her whole face emptied.

Then it filled again, warm and bright, and she crossed the room with both hands out.

"Cassia! Oh my God."

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