Chapter 3 - MY HUSBAND’S REAL FACE
I didn’t run.
Running would have told Derek I was afraid.
Instead, I stood perfectly still.
He approached slowly.
His eyes moved from my face to the backpack.
“What’s in there?”
“My things.”
His smile disappeared.
“We’re married.”
“I’m aware.”
“You don’t walk out fourteen hours after getting married because your feelings got hurt.”
I almost admired the arrogance of the sentence.
“My feelings aren’t the problem.”
He stepped closer.
“You embarrassed my mother.”
I stared at him.
“Your mother poured grease on my shoes.”
“Accidentally.”
“And you threw a filthy towel in my face.”
“Because you needed to understand something.”
“What?”
He lowered his voice.
“That marriage changes the hierarchy.”
There it was.
Not love.
Not partnership.
Hierarchy.
I glanced toward Aunt Patricia.
She had disappeared.
Derek noticed.
“Was Patricia talking to you?”
“No.”
He studied me.
Then he held out his hand.
“Give me the backpack.”
I smiled.
“No.”
His jaw flexed.
“Chloe.”
“No.”
The word seemed to shock him.
Perhaps nobody in that house used it often.
He stepped forward and reached for the strap.
I moved backward.
“Touch me or my property and I call the police.”
He laughed.
“You’re going to call the police because your husband wants to talk to you?”
“No.”
I lifted my phone.
“I’ll call because my husband locked me in a bedroom and attempted to take my passport.”
For the first time, something flickered behind his eyes.
Calculation.
Not remorse.
He lowered his hand.
“Fine.”
Then he smiled again.
“Go downstairs.”
“We’ll discuss it like adults.”
“I’m leaving.”
“You’re not.”
“That sounded almost like a threat.”
“It’s a statement.”
I turned toward the garage corridor.
Derek moved quickly and stepped in front of me.
“Your car keys are downstairs.”
“I have another set.”
“The gate is locked.”
“I have the security app.”
That stopped him.
The color slowly left his face.
“What?”
“You never changed the administrator password.”
For the first time since the towel hit my face, Derek looked uncertain.
I raised my phone.
“And while we’re discussing passwords, you might want to explain why an $11.8 million guarantee bearing my electronic signature was created on your laptop at 8:13 this morning.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Derek’s expression didn’t collapse dramatically.
It hardened.
That was worse.
“Who told you?”
Wrong answer.
Not what guarantee.
Not what are you talking about.
Who told you.
I nodded slowly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For confirming you knew.”
His eyes dropped to my phone.
“You’re recording me.”
I smiled.
“Now you’re learning.”
He lunged for the phone.
I stepped through the nearby door and slammed it behind me.
The smart lock engaged instantly.
Derek hit the other side.
“CHLOE!”
I kept walking.
His fists struck the wood.
“You think this is funny?”
I reached the garage.
“No, Derek.”
I unlocked my car.
“I think it’s over.”
Then the garage door began rising.
Sunlight flooded inside.
I was halfway into the driver’s seat when Brenda appeared in the doorway.
She wasn’t smiling anymore.
May you like
In her hand was my marriage certificate.
And she was tearing it in half.
