Chapter 3 - The Woman at the Door
Ruby ran outside before the car doors were fully closed.
Lily reached for her immediately.
“Mommy!”
Ruby pulled her daughter into her arms and checked her face, her arms and her clothes.
“Are you okay?”
Lily nodded. “Daddy said we were having a surprise.”
Ruby looked at Jameson.
“What surprise?”
He adjusted his jacket. The shame from the night before had disappeared. His posture was straight now, almost rehearsed.
Celeste stood beside him wearing a fitted cream dress and a nervous smile.
Ruby knew that smile.
It belonged to someone pretending to be uncomfortable while enjoying every second of another person’s humiliation.
“Ruby,” Jameson said, “we need to talk inside.”
“No. We talk here.”
A car slowed on the street before continuing past the house.
Jameson lowered his voice. “Don’t create a scene in front of Lily.”
“You took her without permission. You left her with your former assistant. The scene already exists.”
Celeste stepped forward. “I’m not just his former assistant.”
Ruby turned toward her.
Jameson reached for Celeste’s hand.
The movement was small, but it changed everything.
Lily saw it too.
“Daddy?” she asked.
Jameson released Celeste, but it was too late.
Ruby felt as though she had stepped outside her body. She watched herself holding Lily. She watched Jameson stand beside another woman on the driveway Ruby had paid to repair the previous summer.
“How long?” Ruby asked.
Jameson glanced toward the house, where Evelyn watched through the window.
“Let’s go inside.”
“How long?”
“Eight months,” Celeste answered.
Jameson shot her a warning look.
Celeste lifted her chin. “She deserves the truth.”
Ruby almost laughed.
The mistress wanted credit for honesty.
“Eight months,” Ruby repeated.
The timeline formed instantly.
Jameson’s late meetings.
His sudden interest in going to the gym.
The weekend conference in Phoenix.
The second credit card statement he claimed belonged to a client.
The debt.
“Was the money for your business?” Ruby asked.
Jameson’s silence answered.
Celeste crossed her arms. “Some of it was.”
“What was the rest for?”
“Ruby,” Jameson said, “you paid the lender. It’s finished.”
“You used my money to pay for your affair?”
“I made financial mistakes.”
“Hotels? Gifts? Trips?”
“It wasn’t all for Celeste.”
Celeste’s expression changed.
Apparently, that was news to her too.
Ruby looked from one to the other.
“Get off my property.”
Jameson’s face hardened. “That is exactly the attitude I’m talking about.”
“What attitude?”
“You remind me every day that you own everything.”
“I remind you because you spend everything.”
Evelyn opened the front door.
“Come inside,” she called. “The papers are ready.”
Ruby looked at her. “What papers?”
Evelyn stepped aside.
A man in a gray suit was standing in the foyer with a leather briefcase.
Jameson walked toward the house.
Ruby remained in the driveway with Lily.
“Who is he?” she asked.
“My attorney.”
“For what?”
Jameson turned.
“For the divorce.”
Lily began to cry.
Ruby covered her daughter’s ear with one hand.
“You brought another woman into our home, kidnapped our daughter from school and arranged for a lawyer to serve me the morning after I paid your debt?”
“I didn’t kidnap Lily.”
“You lied about taking her to school.”
“I needed her out of the house while we prepared.”
“Prepared what?”
Jameson’s expression became almost calm.
“My transition.”
Ruby stared at him.
Celeste walked past her toward the door.
Evelyn welcomed her with an embrace.
Then Jameson said the words Ruby would remember for the rest of her life.
“I think it would be easier if you and Lily stayed somewhere else for a few days.”
Ruby looked at the house behind him.
Her house.
“You want me to leave?”
“Temporarily.”
“And Celeste?”
Jameson did not answer.
May you like
Celeste did.
“I’ll be staying here.”
