Day Seven I Signed It novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Margo's Boxes

The townhouse looked like a stranger's house when I walked up to it.

A moving truck sat at the curb with its back open, and two men carried a sofa down the front steps.

Half the boxes in the hall were labeled in Margo's neat marker.

KITCHEN. BOOKS. ANNIVERSARY, which I did not open.

She stood in the empty living room with her hair tied back, in jeans and an old gray sweatshirt.

She had no makeup on, and she looked younger and more tired than I had ever seen her.

"You came," Margo said.

"You asked."

She held out two keys on a plain ring.

"The front door and the garage. I made copies for no one. I checked."

I took them.

They were warm from her hand.

"I'm going to my sister's," she said. "In Toledo."

"I've left the chat, and I've blocked Reese."

"I've told my clients what I did."

"What did they say?"

"Nine events canceled by Friday." She almost smiled.

"One woman said she'd have stayed if I'd bet on someone else's husband."

"That's a joke."

"It's the first one I've heard in a month."

I did not laugh, but my face moved.

She looked at the floor.

"I thought you'd always come back because you couldn't cope alone," Margo said.

"That was the whole story I told myself."

"It was easier than thinking you stayed because you loved me and I was bad at it."

"I did love you."

"I know."

"I stopped, though," I said. "Not all at once. You didn't see it."

"No."

"It wasn't the bet. It was the car at the funeral, and eleven other cars like it."

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