He Counted My Lies Until I Died, Then Begged Me to Wake novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Cuff Links

At the family dinner they laugh about her ninety-nine lies, and Winslow calls her gift a surrender. The hospital calls, he refuses it, and his mother deletes the voicemail.

I stood beside him and read the new name on his phone.

Rhona.

Not Wife.

The card, the trip and the car were already gone, and now the name.

Only the bowl of oatmeal was left in the kitchen, still waiting for me.

That night was the Holloway family dinner.

In five years I had never missed one.

Half an hour after the soup, my chair was still empty.

Winslow's aunt asked, "Where's Rhona?"

"Sulking," Sybil said. "Who knows what hole she's hiding in."

Wesley had been drinking and he laughed.

"My sister-in-law is getting good at this. She's nearly at one hundred lies."

The whole table leaned in.

He told them about the Lie Book as if it were a party game.

"One day she says Mom switched her pills. The next she says somebody's in her bank account. Then the cook is poisoning her. Everybody's out to get her."

Someone laughed.

"Winslow, how do you put up with it?"

"She's at ninety-nine and you haven't left her yet?"

I stood behind Winslow's chair and watched the glass in his hand.

He did not laugh.

He also did not say, Stop it.

His uncle asked, "If she reaches one hundred, can you really let her go?"

Winslow raised his eyes.

"She has to learn to answer for what she says. Whether we divorce can wait."

His aunt poked his arm.

"Keep pretending. If she really left, you'd be the first to fall apart."

"She won't leave," Winslow said.

"You're sure?"

He lifted his glass and said it plainly.

"She can't leave me."

I couldn't argue.

The first call I made after 911 had been to him.

Near the end of dinner, a servant brought in a small box.

Inside was a pair of black onyx cuff links.

On the back, tiny letters were engraved.

G and M.

A card was tucked in the lid.

Five years. Stop frowning so much.

I had ordered them a month ago, before any of this.

Winslow's hand stopped on the box.

A few minutes later he went out on the terrace alone and called my number.

No answer.

"I got your gift," he said to the voicemail. "I booked the crab pasta place in South End for you."

Then, very quietly: "Come home."

The night wind moved his shirt.

He waited a while, and his voice went cold again.

"I'll let yesterday go. I'm giving you a way down. Don't push it too far."

I stood next to him and laughed without a sound.

I had been alone in that hospital last night too.

Things had gone too far.

The one who pushed them there was not me.

At one in the morning the hall light was still on.

Winslow worked on the sofa and looked up every few minutes.

Finally he stood and switched the light off.

"Let her be," he said.

After a pause, to himself, he added: "This time I won't coax her."

I stood in the dark.

There was nobody left to coax.

At nine the next morning, in a board meeting, Winslow's phone rang with a number he did not know.

He declined it.

It rang again.

His assistant leaned over and read the screen.

"Mr. Holloway, the caller ID says St. Mary's Medical Center."

Winslow's thumb stopped.

I rushed to the table.

Answer it, I said.

Just once.

He stared at the screen, then laughed under his breath.

"Yesterday she said she was dying. Today the hospital calls. She planned the whole show."

"Should I call them back?" the assistant asked.

"No. If something's really wrong, she'll call me herself."

I tried to press the screen myself.

My hand went through the glass and the table and kept going.

I pulled it back and tried again, harder, until I felt dizzy and had to stop.

He sent the call to voicemail and turned back to the meeting.

The voicemail icon stayed on his phone, a small red number one.

I stared at that number for the rest of the meeting.

It was the only thing in the room still trying to tell him something.

That afternoon at home, Sybil picked up Winslow's phone from the hall table while he was in the shower.

She found the voicemail from St. Mary's.

She listened to it all the way through.

Her face did not change.

Then she deleted it, and set the phone back exactly where it had been.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend