Perfect Husband Act: Now My Wife's Sorry novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Her Mother's Hand

Travis came to Thursday dinner with a bunch of yellow roses for Audrey's mother.

He kissed her cheek in the doorway, and she let him.

I stood at the sink with a dish towel on my shoulder and watched my wife walk into the dining room with her shoulders set.

Susie sat down across from Travis and smiled at him with every tooth.

Audrey's mother carried in the roast.

"Sit, sit," she said. "Eat before it goes cold."

We passed the potatoes.

Nobody said anything for a full minute.

Travis cut his meat and looked at Audrey.

"You've been quiet this week."

"I've been thinking," Audrey said.

Her voice was flat, and her fork was shaking.

I knew it was the plan, and it still made my stomach turn.

"About what I said," she said. "About the pen."

Travis set down his knife.

"I'll sign," Audrey said. "On the twentieth, at your dinner. I can't watch him go."

The table went silent.

Susie, who was supposed to be looking at her plate, did not look at her plate.

Travis let the silence stretch.

Then he stood, walked around the table, and put his hand on Audrey's shoulder.

He squeezed it once, slowly, pleased with her.

"There she is," he said softly. "Good girl."

The crack of the slap was so loud that I thought a plate had broken.

Audrey's mother stood at the head of the table with her hand still in the air.

Travis's own hand hung where she had knocked it off, and the red print of her palm was rising on the back of it.

"You will not touch my daughter," she said, "and call her that."

"Mrs. Hartigan..."

"My daughter paid you four thousand dollars a month for three years." Her voice shook, but she did not stop. "I found the bank statements in her desk. I thought she was saving for a house."

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