Divorce While I'm Pregnant? Fine, Let's Sign It! novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Headline

The photograph was on the front of the morning tabloid, which Libby slapped down on the counter at seven.

It showed me at the van door with my hand on my belly and Otis beside me, his arm out toward my back.

The headline read: PREGNANT STROUD WIFE FLEES TO RIVAL'S FLAT.

"Rival," Otis said. He picked up the paper and read the first paragraph with no expression at all. "I make croissants."

"It says you're Holden's rival in love."

"It says I'm a baker who stole a pregnant wife." He set it down. "I'd have liked a better photograph."

"This isn't funny," Libby said.

"I know. I'm trying not to throw up."

"There's a quote from a friend of the family." Libby jabbed a finger at the column. "'She has been unwell, and the Strouds are heartbroken.' It's his mother."

"It's her phrasing," I said. "Unwell. She said it to six women in a waiting room."

I looked at the photograph for a long time.

Then I took my phone from the counter, the gray one with the cracked corner.

"What are you doing?" Libby asked.

"I filmed table nine."

"We're taking it to a lawyer," Otis said. "We do this properly. There's a legal way to use a recording."

"There's a legal way to use my own phone, too," I said. "I filmed it. I was a party to the conversation. He said every word to me."

"Greta."

"He told the room I'm unwell. He told a newspaper I'm unwell. By Monday, he's going to tell a judge." I turned the screen toward them. "I'm going to let everyone watch me be well."

I cut the clip to forty seconds.

It began with Holden turning his cup on its saucer and ended with him saying, "Daphne painted it so the baby will feel at home when she comes to us."

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