My Husband Left Me in Labor for My Best Friend and Her Baby novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Husband at Sea

Ward Delaney did not offer to shake my hand.

He looked at the stitches under my gown, the wheelchair and my father's face, and he said, "I'll wait outside if you want."

"Stay," I said. "Dad, can you go sit with Posy in the nursery?"

Norm gave Ward a long look.

"I'll be at the glass," he said. "Door stays open."

He left it open about two inches.

I climbed from the chair to the bed, and Ward looked at the wall while I did it.

Then he sat down and put his phone on the blanket between us.

"My marriage certificate," he said.

It was a photo, taken at a county office with an American flag in the corner.

Summer Sorensen and Ward Delaney, six years ago in May.

She wore a short white dress and was laughing with her whole face.

"I have a Facebook account I check once a month," he said. "A guy on my crew sent me the photo on the ship at four this morning. He thought it was a joke."

"It isn't."

"I know."

His voice was level, and his hand wasn't.

He picked up his phone and put it down again.

"Walk me through it," he said. "Please. I've heard Summer's version for six years. I'd like to hear someone else's."

So I told him.

I told him all of it, in order, and he did not interrupt once.

When I got to the title company, he asked for the name on the wire, and I read it off my phone.

He wrote it on his hand with a pen from the tray, and then he closed his eyes.

"Three years," he said.

"Her anniversary is in June."

"Our anniversary is in May."

I took my own phone off the tray and scrolled through the pictures my father had saved.

"There's a ski cabin," I said. "She posted it on January twelfth."

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