Page 49 of The Banned Books Club

Taking a deep breath, she squeezed her eyes closed and let her head fall back on the seat as she answered. “Hello?”

“Where are you?” he demanded.

Opening her eyes, she sat up straight. “I—I’m on my way to my folks’.”

“With my lunch? I got a text from Racine a few minutes ago saying you’d stopped by the office.”

Thatwas why he’d left Cece’s in such a hurry. Now it made sense. “I thought you might want it, but she said you were already out to lunch, and I promised my family I’d be over, so...”

“We must’ve passed each other,” he said. “I just went home to pick it up.”

What a liar! There was no way he’d had time to do that. He’d peeled away from the curb and called her almost immediately. “Why didn’t you text me?” she asked.

“Why didn’t you textme?” he countered.

“I assumed you were taken care of.”

“Well, I’m not. Can you come back?”

She didn’t want to see him. She was still trying to determine how his affair might figure into her future plans. Was there any chance he’d let her go? That shewouldn’thave to take the boys and try to make a new life somewhere else, completely on her own? “Sheldon?”

The change in her tone must’ve alerted him to the fact that she was about to ask a serious question, because he sounded somewhat defensive when he said, “What?”

“If...if you’d rather be with Cece, I’ll give you a divorce. You can have the house and the business. I would...I would just need a little money to get a new start—until I can find a job. That’s all.”

Silence. She curled her fingernails into the palm of her free hand, hoping and praying that Cece—and not some desperate attempt to go into hiding—would prove to be her salvation.

“We could share custody of the boys,” she added, to make it even more appealing. She didn’t want to resort to what she’d planned—not if she could do it in a way that would enable her to stay in the community with her family and friends.

“Are you telling me you don’t love me anymore?” he asked. “That you could walk away from me that easily?”

What did love have to do with their marriage? He hadn’t loved her for years; he treated her as though she was the dirt under his feet. “I’m saying I want you to be happy,” she replied, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. “And ifIcan’t make you happy, maybe she can.”

She held her breath. If she said the wrong thing, he could suddenly decide to call off his trip to go to marriage counseling or do something else, and she was well beyond trying to save what they’d once had. In her view, their marriage had already burned to the ground.

“I’m happy with you,” he insisted. “I would never break up our family. You know how I feel about divorce, what it does to the children. Marriage is forever. That’s how I’ve always viewed it.”

Each thump of her heart seemed deafening.Forever, he’d said—and she didn’t feel as though she could survive another day! “What about Cece?”

“I told you. Cece and I are just friends.”

In other words, he intended to keep Margot pinned under his thumb, taking care of his house, his meals and his kids, while he had an exciting sexual affair with his former girlfriend. He didn’t think he should have to choose between them; he believed he should have it all.

“Okay.”

He didn’t speak right away. She got the impression her response—that she’d given in so easily—had shocked him. “Do you want to go to lunch and talk about it?”

“Not today,” she said. “My family’s expecting me. I’m sitting in their driveway right now.” She wasn’t at the house quite yet, but she wanted to make him believe she was so he wouldn’t press her to meet him.

“Our marriage doesn’t mean that much to you?”

How many times had she asked him the same question? But when she’d asked, she’d been sincere, hadn’t been trying to manipulate him. “Of course it does,” she said, scrambling to add some emotion to her voice even though she no longer felt anything. She had to hold her world together for just a little while longer—even though it felt like her life was crumbling through her fingers.

“We’ll talk about it tonight,” he said. “And don’t you dare tell your folks or anyone else that I’m having an affair,” he added, “because I’m not.”

The sight of him emerging from Cece’s house just a few minutes earlier played in her mind like a video. “I would never do that.”

“You would if you thought you could get away with it.”

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