While He Built Her Home novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Box Under the Bed

Neil set the box on the changing table, right under the paper birds.

Nobody on the landing said a word.

Brynn stood at the foot of the crib with her hand on the rail.

"Neil, this is not the place."

"You picked the place," Neil said. "You put forty people in it."

He lifted the lid and took out a folded sheet of clinic letterhead.

"Five years ago you sat me down at our kitchen table and showed me this. It said I could never father a child."

He held it up so the people near the door could see.

"I believed it for five years. I let you cry on my shoulder about it. I apologized to you for it."

"Neil."

"In August I went to a different clinic. My numbers are fine. They're better than fine."

A woman in the doorway covered her mouth.

Brynn's laugh came out thin.

"He's bitter. Everyone knows he's bitter. I left him because he wouldn't try."

"You left?" Neil said. "I moved out in March. You kept the house."

He reached back into the box.

"There's more of this. Pharmacy slips, all in your name, every month for twelve years. Same pharmacy as hers."

He fanned them out on the changing table, a long pale row of paper.

The man in the gray suit leaned over and read one.

"Oral contraceptive," he said slowly. "Twelve years."

"I have a medical condition," Brynn said. "My own medicine is private."

"And this?"

Neil took out a spiral notebook with a blue cover.

Brynn moved faster than I had ever seen her move.

She lunged for it with both hands.

Clayton stepped between them, calm and wide, and she hit his chest and stopped.

Keep reading free with an account. Start While He Built Her Home from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.