Chapter 2

Callum finally came home at 1:17 in the morning.

By then, my younger sister Della had already brought me home from the hospital.

I sat at the dining table with my hospital bracelet still around my wrist.

Callum paused when he saw it.

"You actually went to the hospital?"

I looked up at him.

"I texted you."

"I saw it, but Celeste was upset. I assumed you were only getting checked out."

He took off his wet shoes, speaking as casually as if nothing had happened all night.

"What did the doctor say?"

"I am showing signs of early labor."

He finally stopped moving.

"Is the baby okay?"

"For now."

Callum exhaled in relief.

"Good. You should have been clearer. Do not just text that you are at the hospital and expect me to know what you mean."

I slid my phone across the table.

Celeste's photo filled the screen.

"This was your meeting? Checking her tire?"

Callum barely glanced at it.

"Her tire pressure light came on, and she was afraid to drive."

"She was standing in her garage."

"So?"

"So your wife, who is thirty-seven weeks pregnant and having contractions on an unlit interstate, can be left to strangers. But when she gets scared in a well-lit garage with security cameras, you have to go in person?"

Callum frowned.

"Why do you insist on comparing two different situations?"

"Because you made two very different choices on the same night."

"Maeve, she is not as calm as you are. Things like this make her panic."

A short laugh escaped me.

"So because I did not cry and beg, I did not need you?"

"That is not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

Callum did not answer.

He poured himself a glass of water as if the conversation had already exhausted him.

"It is late. You are emotional right now. We will talk tomorrow."

The repair shop called the next afternoon to say my car was ready.

But I was not the one who picked it up.

When Callum came home, he carried only a spare set of keys.

I met him in the entryway. "Where is my car?"

"I loaned it to Celeste. Her car needs to stay at the shop for two days."

"What am I supposed to drive?"

"Did the doctor not tell you to rest? It is safer if you do not drive for a few days."

"The doctor told me to avoid long drives. He did not give you permission to hand my car to someone else."

Before Callum could answer, a horn sounded outside the garage.

My car was parked there.

Celeste sat behind the wheel and lowered the window with a smile for him.

"I am in a hurry. Where should I put all this stuff?"

Callum walked around to the back and opened the rear door.

He unloaded several large boxes.

The last thing he removed was the infant car seat we had installed in advance.

Callum set it directly on the concrete garage floor.

The little blanket I had bought for the baby was pinned beneath it.

Celeste leaned out the window and gave me an apologetic look.

"My samples would not fit in the back, so we had to take the seat out. Your due date is still three weeks away. You probably will not need it yet, right?"

Callum loaded the final box into the car.

"It is fine. We can reinstall it later."

Neither of them had even asked me.

I had checked that seat against the manual every day, testing the angle again and again while imagining the moment I would bring our daughter home.

Now they had discarded it like a piece of clutter that was in their way.

After the car pulled away, I crouched down and picked up the dusty blanket.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Celeste had sent me a message.

"Your car drives beautifully. Callum said you probably will not need it anytime soon. Your husband is so thoughtful."

That evening, I showed Callum the message.

"She is deliberately taunting me."

Callum did not even look at the screen.

He turned my phone facedown on the table.

"I am not doing this again. You keep turning ordinary comments into something malicious."

"You will not even look."

"Because I know what kind of person Celeste is."

"Do you know what kind of person I am?"

He was silent for several seconds.

"You have not been yourself lately."

I nodded and took my phone back.

"You are right."

I was no longer the Maeve who explained herself over and over, hoping he would finally understand.

Back in the bedroom, I opened the safe at the bottom of my closet.

I took out my passport, medical records, and marriage certificate and placed them in the document folder I had prepared.

Then I texted my attorney.

"How soon can the divorce papers be ready for my signature?"