He Married His Childhood Sweetheart for Her Prank, I'm Nobody's Mistress, EVER novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Three Terms

Emme gives Rodney three terms, Delphine arrives with soup and calm eyes, and a text from Declan leads Emme to the name of the witness: Rodney's mother.

Declan walked me to Bea's car and put his card on top of my box of desk things.

"MacMaster Studio," he said. "I need a senior designer. Start whenever you like."

"Why would I work for you?"

"Because you're out of a job as of ten minutes ago."

"That's not a reason. That's a pity offer."

He didn't argue.

He just looked at my hands, which I had pushed up inside my sleeves, and said, "The offer doesn't expire."

Then he stepped back and let Bea pull away.

"Who was that?" Bea asked.

"Tobin's best friend."

"The one who vanished after the funeral?"

"That one."

"And he turns up on the day you get fired." Bea merged into traffic and frowned at the mirror. "I don't love that."

"I don't love any of today."

Rodney came to Bea's apartment at seven that evening.

Bea let him in because I told her to.

He stood in her tiny living room in his suit with his hands in his pockets, and she went into the kitchen and ran the water very loudly.

"Say it," I said.

"Emme, I'm sorry about the lobby."

"Say the thing you came to say."

"It's not real," he said. "The marriage. Delphine needed it, and I'll fix it."

"Needed it for what?"

"She's been in a bad place since the anniversary." He rubbed his jaw. "I'll tell you everything. Just give me a week."

"No."

"Emme."

"I have terms," I said.

He went still.

I had written them on the back of a pizza flyer while Bea made tea.

I read them off it.

"One. You file for an annulment this week. Two. Delphine posts a retraction, with her own face, saying I never knew. Three. Her crew stays out of every building I walk into, ever again."

"That's not fair to her."

"It's three things I'm asking for. She's done four to me."

He looked at the flyer, and then at me.

"What if she won't post it?"

"Then you decide which of us you're married to."

A knock came at the door.

Bea shut the water off.

On the landing, in the same cream coat, Delphine stood holding a large pot with a towel wrapped around it.

Her eyes were red.

"I made chicken soup," she said. "Emme, I know you hate me. I just didn't want you to go hungry."

I should have shut the door.

Instead I stepped back, because that is what I had done for four years.

She came in and set the pot on Bea's counter and turned to Rodney with her face wet.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought you two would laugh. I thought it'd be funny."

"A marriage license isn't funny," I said.

"I know." She wiped her cheek. "I just wanted one night where somebody chose me. Tobin's gone. You've both got each other. I've got a camera."

Bea stared at her.

Rodney put a hand on her back.

I watched his hand, and then I watched Delphine's eyes flick down to it and back up.

She was calm.

That was the part I couldn't stop looking at.

Her face was crying and her eyes were calm.

"Emme, I'd do anything to make it up to you," she said. "Anything."

"Then post the retraction."

"Of course." She nodded fast. "Tomorrow."

"Tonight."

"The crew's asleep. Tomorrow, I promise."

Rodney looked relieved, and that made me angrier than the lobby had.

He took Delphine out, and the pot of soup sat on the counter smelling of dill.

Bea poured it down the sink.

"Absolutely not," she said. "I don't know what's in it."

I laughed, and it came out wrong.

At ten, my phone buzzed with a number I didn't know.

You asked why he waited until October. Ask him who witnessed the marriage in September.

It was from Declan.

I typed back: How do you know about the witness?

The dots came up and went away three times.

Then: Ask him.

I called Rodney, and he picked up before the second ring.

"Who signed as your witness?" I said.

He didn't speak.

I could hear a television somewhere behind him and Delphine laughing at it.

"Rodney."

"My mother," he said.

I sat down on the arm of Bea's sofa.

His mother had signed.

Three weeks later she had sat across from me at the engagement dinner and kissed my cheek and called me her daughter.

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