Now I Watch Her Love Him novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Ring

Hannah's POV

I packed in the order I would need things.

I have moved out of one house before, and I know which boxes you open first.

Pencils and ink. The good brushes. A lamp.

Six pairs of socks, the gray cardigan, my mother's recipe cards.

I did not pack the wedding album, and I did not pack the nursery paint swatches that were still taped inside the closet door.

Dylan had left for the dealership at eight, though it was Saturday.

He had stood in the hallway with his keys and said, "Please don't do this today," and I said, "Go to work," and he went.

I watched his Mercedes back out of the driveway from the studio window.

Twenty-two months.

I keep the number in the notes app on my phone, under a list of grocery items, because nobody looks under groceries.

He told me four.

I let him say it.

I have been letting him say things for a long time.

I wanted to know how much he would give me when I asked him straight.

Four months was the answer.

I put the last box by the door and stood with my hands on my hips.

At nine-thirty I heard a truck in the driveway.

Jonas got out with a paper sack of brackets and stood at the bottom of the porch steps.

He did not come up.

I opened the door.

"The pantry shelf needed these," he said, and held up the sack.

"The shelf is done. You finished it last night."

"The other one." He looked past me into the hall. "I thought I'd put them in."

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