Page 71 of The Temporary Bride

I move past her, focused on putting as much space between us as I can. I can feel her eyes on my back, but I refuse to look, determined to leave her behind me where she belongs.

My mother follows in my wake. I can practically hear her mind racing, but if she has anything to say about my run-in with Iris, she keeps it to herself. Her car is waiting at the curb, and she gives me a one-armed hug before climbing into the back seat.

Alone on the sidewalk, I pull out my phone to call my own driver. Once the car is on the way, I glance back at the restaurant’s entrance, half wondering if Iris will come out and try to talk to me again.

The best way to avoid that is to be busy. Without thinking about it, I dial Gabriel’s number and put the phone to my ear.

“Hello, this is Gabriel,” he answers.

My oldest brother is always so fucking serious. He answers the phone like he’s taking a call from the president even when it’s one of us calling.

“Gabe,” I mutter, “you have caller ID, right? There’s no need for that.”

“What do you need?” Straight to business, as always.

“I just got out of lunch with Mom,” I tell him.

“And how was that?” He sounds distracted, busy. He’s been handling the rest of my father’s estate, which, given the size of it, is basically a full-time job at the moment.

“Good. Listen, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What?”

“I need to know if there was anything passed down in the will, or found among Dad’s possessions. Any notebooks or journals, something like that.”

There’s a moment’s pause. “No,” Gabriel says finally, his tone curious. “Why do you ask?”

I shake my head. “No reason.”

The way my mother talked about my father just now is stuck in my mind. I desperately want some more insight into my father’s head, more information about the kind of person he was behind closed doors. A way to understand him, even now, when it’s far too late.

“I’ll let you know if anything like that comes up,” my brother promises. “I’m still sorting through the rest of his things.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

My car pulls up to the curb, and I catch my reflection in its tinted windows. I say goodbye and hang up as I get in, my mother’s words still churning through my head as I settle onto the plush seat.

I think about Chloe lying with her back to me on her side of the bed, not saying anything, carrying whatever the fuck is eating away at her and not letting me near it.

My mother said she and my father had something real. She said it stalled because they stopped doing the work. And even though I promised myself I’d never be like my father in all the ways that count, here I am sitting in the back of a car not knowing what’s going on in my own wife’s head, not knowing what woke her up crying in the dark.

Not knowing how to get past a wall I can feel but can’t see.

Chapter 24

Chloe

The soft tap-tap of my keyboard fills the air, and the glow of my computer screen illuminates the dimly lit office space. Lost in my work, I hardly notice the door swinging open until my sister saunters in, her presence instantly injecting a burst of energy into the room.

Genevieve flops down on the couch, making herself right at home. I sigh, closing my laptop and turning my swivel chair toward her.

“Have you seen it yet?” she asks without preamble.

A wave of cold dread runs through me at the serious look on her face. “Seen what?”

“Go to In-The-Know,” she tells me. I recognize the name of the webpage, an Instagram staple that feeds the gossip mill in LA. That can’t be good.

I open my laptop back up, navigating over to the site. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”