Chapter 1 - Fifty Dollars at the Hospital Door
Five days after giving birth, Audrey Brooks stood beneath the hospital entrance canopy with her newborn son pressed against her chest.
The morning sunlight was warm, but her hands felt cold.
Dominic reached into his wallet, removed a crumpled fifty-dollar bill, and added several coins.
“This should be more than enough,” he said, pressing the money into her palm.
Audrey looked at the bills, then at the black SUV waiting behind him.
She thought she had misunderstood.
“Enough for what?”
“The bus.”
He said it casually, as if he were discussing the weather.
Audrey shifted Leo carefully. The movement sent pain across her abdomen, and she had to steady herself against a concrete pillar.
“Dominic, I had surgery five days ago.”
“You’ve mentioned that several times.”
“I can barely walk.”
“My sister’s friend had a baby last year. She was shopping three days later.”
Audrey stared at him.
“That doesn’t mean I’m ready to ride across the city alone.”
Dominic sighed and checked his watch.
His mother, Victoria, was waiting inside the SUV. His father, Arthur, sat in the front passenger seat. Natalie occupied the back seat, leaving her handbag and shopping bags spread across the space where Audrey and Leo should have been sitting.
Victoria lowered the window.
“Dominic, we’re going to lose the reservation.”
Natalie leaned forward.
“Does she really need to make everything so dramatic?”
Audrey looked toward the empty infant seat beside Natalie’s shopping bags.
The seat had been installed two weeks earlier.
“You brought Leo’s car seat,” Audrey said. “You knew we were being discharged today.”
Dominic avoided her eyes.
“My family planned a celebration lunch. There isn’t enough room for everyone, and the restaurant is in the opposite direction from the apartment.”
“There’s enough room if Natalie moves her bags.”
Natalie rolled her eyes.
“These are expensive. I’m not putting them in the trunk beside a dirty diaper bag.”
Dominic took the diaper bag from a nurse and tossed it into the trunk.
“There. Problem solved.”
But the problem was not solved.
Audrey had spent years making excuses for him.
When he forgot her birthday, he had been working.
When he dismissed her opinions, he had been stressed.
When Victoria insulted her background, Dominic claimed his mother was only protective.
When Natalie borrowed Audrey’s clothes and returned them damaged, Dominic told Audrey to stop being materialistic.
The cruelty had arrived slowly, hidden beneath small disappointments.
That morning, however, there was nowhere left for it to hide.
“Come home with us,” Audrey said quietly. “Take your wife and son home. You can have lunch another day.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“I already told you I’m not canceling.”
“Then let your family take the bus.”
Victoria opened the door.
“How dare you speak about us like that after everything Dominic has done for you?”
Audrey almost laughed.
Everything Dominic had done for her?
He lived in an apartment purchased by her family.
He drove a vehicle given to them by her father.
His company existed because Audrey had quietly persuaded Brooks Global to guarantee its first major loan.
Yet Dominic’s family believed she was dependent on him.
Audrey had hidden her wealth because she wanted to know whether he loved her without it.
Now she had her answer.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“Don’t embarrass me in front of my family.”
“You’re abandoning me outside a hospital.”
“I’m giving you money.”
He pointed to the bus stop as though his generosity should have ended the discussion.
“There’s a direct route. You’ll be home in forty minutes.”
Audrey looked down at Leo. His tiny face was peaceful beneath his white cap.
She imagined climbing the bus steps while protecting him, carrying the diaper bag, and trying not to strain her healing body.
A nurse approached.
“Mrs. Vance, are you sure you have safe transportation?”
Before Audrey could answer, Dominic smiled.
“She’s fine. She just prefers public transportation.”
The lie came easily to him.
That frightened Audrey more than his cruelty.
Dominic kissed two fingers and touched them to Leo’s blanket without actually kissing his son.
“There are leftovers in the refrigerator. Don’t keep calling me while I’m at lunch.”
He climbed into the SUV.
Victoria smiled triumphantly.
Natalie moved her shopping bags into the infant seat.
The vehicle pulled away.
Audrey watched until it disappeared into traffic.
Then she closed her fingers around the money and made a decision.
She would take the bus.
May you like
Not because Dominic had ordered her to.
Because she wanted to remember every second of the moment her marriage ended.
