Chapter 9 #3
The accusation would have worked on her the day before. Abby would have searched her memory for every wedding question and wondered whether she had made their home another place where Hudson could fail.
Now she saw how efficiently he had moved from denying the affair to blaming her for creating the conditions that supposedly required it. He had changed the subject without ever answering for what he had done.
“You could have ended our relationship,” she said. “You could have told me you were unhappy.”
“I wasn’t unhappy with you.” Hudson sounded offended by the suggestion. “I loved you. I still love you.”
“You don’t get to call what you did love because you wanted to keep me.” Abby’s voice shook, but she did not look away. “Possession isn’t the same as love.”
He stared at her for a long moment. The rain tapped against the porch roof, filling the space where his answer should have been.
“This is Evan talking,” Hudson said at last. “You never spoke to me this way until he got into your head.”
“Evan did not make you sleep with Makayla.” Abby stepped closer to the threshold. “He didn’t make either of you lie to us.”
“He neglected her until she turned to me.” Hudson pointed toward the bruise on his mouth. “Then he attacked me when he realized she preferred someone else. He brought you along because he knew you would be vulnerable.”
“He showed me the truth.” Abby thought of Evan standing in the rain with the iPad held against his chest. “Now you’re angry because I know it.”
“He invaded her privacy.” Hudson’s voice rose. “If he hadn’t gone through that iPad, none of this would have happened.”
Abby studied the man on the porch and understood that he believed the discovery had caused the crisis. The affair itself remained secondary to the exposure, something he might have managed indefinitely if Evan had respected Makayla’s privacy more than Hudson respected anyone’s trust.
“Take the ring,” Abby said as she held it out again. “Then leave.”
Hudson looked down at it but kept both hands occupied with the flowers. “I’m not accepting a decision you’ll regret.”
Abby placed the ring on top of the bouquet. It slipped between two white roses and caught against the ribbon wrapped around the stems.
“The wedding is over,” she said. “I will contact the vendors, and I’ll arrange a time to collect my things from the apartment. Do not come inside Sadie’s house, and do not show up here again without asking me.”
Hudson looked at the ring among the flowers. His face had gone pale beneath the bruising.
“You think this is going to end with you living here and Evan waiting around until you’re ready for him?” he asked as he lifted his gaze. “He’ll lose interest as soon as you stop being a woman he can rescue.”
The cruelty found its mark, but Abby refused to show him where. “This has nothing to do with Evan.”
“Everything has to do with Evan now.” Hudson backed down one step, holding the bouquet as if Abby had returned something contaminated. “I’ve seen the way he’s looked at you over the years. When you realize what you’ve done, don’t expect me to forget the way you treated me.”
“I won’t ask you to forget.” Abby rested one hand against the edge of the door. “I’m asking you to leave.”
Hudson waited for her to weaken. When she remained silent, he turned and descended the porch steps without looking back.
Sadie closed the door only after he reached the sidewalk. She engaged the lock, then stood with both palms pressed against the wood.
“You did it,” she said as she faced Abby. “He heard you.”
Abby watched through the window as Hudson threw the roses onto the passenger seat. The ring disappeared with them.
“He didn’t believe me.” Her legs began to shake now that she no longer needed them to hold her steady. “He thinks I’ll go back to him. He still does.”
“That is his problem.” Sadie reached her before her knees gave way and guided her toward the stairs. “You ended it.”
Abby sat on the bottom step. The bare place on her left hand looked paler than the rest of her skin, and she rubbed the indentation the ring had left behind.
Her phone vibrated in the kitchen. She did not move until it sounded again.
Sadie retrieved it and checked the screen before handing it over.
“It’s Evan.” The message was longer than his earlier ones: I ended my engagement this morning.
Makayla has until tomorrow evening to collect her belongings, and my attorney is arranging the division of anything that belongs to both of us.
Let me know if you want my attorney’s info.
Abby read it once, then again. Evan had not asked Makayla to explain herself into innocence or treated eighteen months as a problem to be negotiated away. She typed with both thumbs while Sadie sat beside her: I ended mine too. Evan’s reply arrived a minute later: I’m sorry.
Abby looked through the window at the empty street. Hudson’s car had disappeared, leaving two dark tracks on the wet pavement.
So am I, she wrote. Then she rested her head against Sadie’s shoulder and let the silence hold everything neither she nor Evan could repair that morning.