My Husband Kissed His Pregnant Mistress While 200 Women Waited for My Marriage Advice novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Take Your Bag

Miles shows his mother the photos. At home Joanna hands Neil his bag and gives Candace water. Marcy calls: the women never left the bar.

I got into the back seat next to my son and shut the door.

The garage lights buzzed over us.

Miles held out his phone without looking at me.

"You don't have to look at all of them."

I looked at all of them.

There were nine photos.

Neil and Candace in an elevator.

Neil and Candace at a table by the window of the hotel restaurant, her hand on his sleeve.

Neil carrying a stroller box through the lobby.

The last one was a receipt, with Suite 612 at the top and my company's card number at the bottom.

"I took them in March," Miles said. "I was at the hotel for cello lessons. The practice room is on the sixth floor."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

His jaw worked. He's fifteen and he has my jaw.

"Dad found me by the elevators. He said it was adult stuff and I'd ruin your launch if I said anything."

He turned the phone over in his hands.

"Then he bought me this one. I knew what it was for."

"The new phone."

"I should have given it back." His voice cracked on the last word. "I kept it anyway."

I took the phone out of his hands and set it on the seat.

Then I pulled him against my shoulder, and he let me, which he hadn't done since he was twelve.

"You were fifteen and your father put you in the middle," I said. "That's his fault, not yours."

"You're not mad?"

"I'm furious," I said. "Not at you."

We drove home with the radio off.

I packed Neil's bag in the front hall.

Three suits, his good razor, his passport, and the cufflinks my mother gave him at our wedding.

Miles stood on the stairs and handed me things from the closet without being asked.

Headlights swept across the front window.

Neil's car pulled into the driveway, and Candace sat in the passenger seat with one hand pressed flat to her stomach.

I carried the duffel out and set it on the porch step.

Neil came up the walk with his jacket open and his tie pulled loose.

He had stopped smiling.

"You can't lock me out of my own house."

"Your name is staying on the deed until the lawyers say otherwise," I said. "You're just not sleeping in it tonight."

"Jo." He lowered his voice. "Be reasonable. The vendor contracts, the platform logins, the payroll. You don't know where any of it is."

"Marcy changed the logins an hour ago."

For the first time he had nothing ready to say.

Behind him the car door opened, and Candace climbed out slowly.

She walked to the edge of the lawn and bent over the porch railing.

I heard her retch into the hydrangeas.

Miles drew a sharp breath on the stairs.

I went into the kitchen and came back with a glass of water.

Neil stared at me. "What are you doing?"

"She's six months pregnant and standing out in the cold." I held the glass out. "Whatever else she is, she's not going to faint on my lawn."

Candace took it with both hands.

Her mascara had run, and she couldn't meet my eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"Drink it slowly."

She nodded and sipped, and her shoulders shook.

She looked young and sick and frightened, and the old therapist in me wanted to put a hand on her back.

I kept my hands at my sides.

Neil took the glass from her and set it on the railing.

"Enough. We're leaving, but this isn't over." He pointed at me. "Tomorrow you'll see what you've done. Nobody will book you after tonight."

"Goodnight, Neil."

"You need a husband beside you, Jo. That's your whole brand."

I closed the door and locked it.

Through the glass I watched him stand a long moment looking at the duffel.

Then he picked it up.

Miles sat down on the bottom stair. "Mom, that was the best and the worst thing I've ever seen."

My phone rang, and it was Marcy.

I could hear shouting behind her.

"Jo, where are you?"

"Home. Why, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. That's the problem." She laughed, short and breathless. "Two hundred women never left the hotel, Jo."

"What are they doing?"

"They're in the bar," Marcy said. "And they're asking for you."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

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