Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Day Zero

The studio chief tapped the microphone once, and the sound went out over four thousand people.

"I'll say this one time," he said. "The premiere will go on."

He did not look at Malachi.

He looked at the first row.

"Ms. Preminger. Your contract with this studio ends tonight. Be in my office at ten tomorrow morning, and bring your keys."

Margo stood in the center aisle with her gold pen in her hand.

She opened her mouth, and a hundred phones rose around her.

She closed it again.

She walked up the aisle alone, in her cream silk suit, past every row, and the doors swung shut behind her.

The next morning was Sunday, the day the contract ended.

At ten, Portia sat at a long table in the studio lawyers' room.

It was the same room.

It had the same glass table, and the same chairs.

This time the chairs were nearly empty.

Malachi sat across from her in a plain gray sweater with his hands folded.

He had slept twelve hours.

His voice had come back in the night, in small pieces.

Between them, in a thin folder, were two copies of the divorce papers.

The studio lawyer sat at the end with his hands flat on the table.

He looked as though he had been told to be very polite.

At five past ten the door opened.

Margo came in with a cardboard box under her arm.

She wore a navy coat with no cream in it.

Her hair was neat, and her face was not.

"I'm here to return what's mine," she said. "And what isn't."

She set the box on the table.

Inside was a brass key on a ring and a stack of Christmas cards with a rubber band around them.

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