I Lost to My Husband's Ex Twelve Times—Then Found Out His Coin Had No Heads novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Ring

Hazel sells her wedding ring to feed her mother and Danica dumps the food, then her lawyer says the marriage may not exist.

Neil came down at midnight and told the doorman I lived there, and the doorman let me up.

I slept on the couch with my coat on and the coin in my pocket.

In the morning I meant to visit Mom at Maple Court and ask if she would move somewhere closer to my work.

I had no money of my own to do it with.

The only thing I owned that was worth anything was on my left hand.

The jeweler on the corner turned my wedding ring under a lamp and told me he couldn't give me near what it cost.

"We can sell it on consignment," he said. "You'd have to wait a few months."

"I'll take what you'll give me today."

I signed the slip, and he put the ring in a velvet box and took it away from me.

Neil had pushed it onto my finger by the lake and told me I would never have to face anything alone again.

A year later I was selling it so I could ride a bus to my mother without asking his ex-wife for permission.

I walked out with more cash in my hand than I had held at one time in a year.

At the Tuesday market I bought a chicken, potatoes, green beans and an apple pie.

The vegetable woman at my usual stall knew me.

When I added mushrooms to the basket, she raised her eyebrows.

"You're not waiting for that woman to send you money today?"

I gave her a small smile and paid.

Danica gave me twenty dollars a day for the whole apartment.

I took everything home and roasted the chicken.

I packed the chicken and the beans into containers and cut two slices of pie.

Mom had told me on the phone that the pie at Maple Court was always too sweet.

I had just picked up my coat when the front door opened.

Danica walked in first with Neil behind her, and her smile stopped when she saw the counter.

"Where did all of this come from?"

She pulled the lid off a container and tilted it, and sauce ran down the side.

"That's for my mother."

"I asked where you got the money, Hazel."

I reached for the container.

She tipped it into the trash can, chicken first, then the potatoes on top of last night's coffee grounds, then the beans, then the pie.

I grabbed her wrist. "Stop it."

Neil pulled me off her, his hand tight on my arm.

"Hazel. Answer her first. Have you been hiding money from us?"

Danica had my bag in her hands by then.

She turned it over above the couch, and my wallet and keys and a travel pack of tissues hit the cushions.

She counted the cash left from the ring, folded it, and put it in her own purse.

"That explains why twenty dollars is never enough for you," she said. "You've been stashing it."

"It's not yours. Give it back."

She stepped behind Neil.

Neil crouched and picked up the jeweler's slip from the floor.

I watched his face change as he read it.

"You sold your wedding ring."

"Yes. I wanted to cook for my mother, and I wanted to pay my own way there. Now you know."

He looked at my bare hand. For once he didn't have an answer ready.

"Hazel, we can talk about this," he said quietly. "You didn't have to do this."

"We certainly will talk," Danica said, and took his arm. "Today it's the ring. Tomorrow she'll be carrying boxes out the door. Her mother isn't starving, Neil. What was the point?"

Neil's jaw tightened as he turned back to me.

"Why do you always have to make it so hard? Why couldn't you just tell me what you needed?"

"I did."

I looked at the chicken in the trash.

My hands were still shaking.

"I told you every single time."

He didn't say anything.

I picked up my wallet and my keys and walked to the door.

"You don't have a cent on you," he called after me. "Talk it through with Danica first. You can't slam out of here every time something goes wrong."

My phone buzzed in my hand.

The message was from Paula Winslow, the lawyer.

"Hazel, I looked at the wedding papers you sent. I can't find any record of your marriage, and the certificate has problems."

A second message came right behind it.

"You may never have been legally married to him."

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