Chapter 5: In Front of the Neighbors

I slid the chain off and stepped out into the hallway.

Marcy grabbed my sleeve. "Beth."

"I want people to hear this."

Three doors on the landing were already open a crack.

Cory stood in his rumpled suit with my cuff links in his fist.

"It's yours," I said.

"Beth."

"It is yours. I haven't been with anyone but you for seven years."

"I would know if it was mine."

"Then you won't mind a test."

He stared at me.

"A paternity test," I said. "A real one, at a lab, with a swab from both of us. Take it."

"Fine." His voice was tight. "I'll take it. And when it's back, you'll tell my friends you were wrong."

"When it's back, you'll sign the divorce."

Behind me, an elevator chimed.

Whitney stepped out with a paper cup in each hand.

She wore jeans, big sunglasses and the gold band from yesterday, still on her finger.

"Cory, there you are," she said. "I've been calling for an hour."

She held out a cup to him.

Then she saw me and made her face soft.

"Beth. Oh, honey. Are you okay?"

"Don't call me honey."

"You've had such a hard few years." She turned to the open doors and said it to them. "The treatments, the hormones. It does things to you."

A woman across the landing pulled her robe tighter.

Whitney tilted her head. "She isn't herself right now."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Carried His Baby, He Played Husband to Her from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.