Chapter 41
Troy’s phone rests on top of his desk beside his gray mouse pad, which is fraying at the edges. He’s had the same mouse pad since he was a junior associate. And now, a partner. He’s due for an upgrade.
The screen is alight, the vibration a faint rattle, and he stares at it.
After weeks of ignoring his calls, the nerve of her. His wife.
During his workday, a couple of hours before he typically leaves the office, she is calling him. Despite her coolness, the way she brushes away his concern. She’s stopped saying she loves him. She’s behaving as though she hates him. Yet she’s turning to him now.
The past few days, he’s caught her smiling faintly, caressing the gentle swell of her belly. Her love has been growing, finally, for the baby to be. But not for him. When she meets his eyes, her smile fades, slowly dropping away.
He’s given her everything, and she’s made him regret it.
Something must be wrong. It’s the only explanation for her call. Something very wrong, and his chest hurts, a sudden pain, like something cracking in his heart, because he can think of only one thing that it might be.
And he thinks it’s only fair that she be made to feel the way he has when she’s ignored and rejected his calls, when he knows that she’s at home, in the house he bought her, with nothing to do. She’s done it countless times.
And he’ll never admit this. Later, he will hold her and run his fingers down the length of her hair.
He’ll apologize and they’ll cry together.
He’ll tell her he was in a client meeting and he didn’t have his cell phone with him.
She should have called his firm’s receptionist and told her to pull him from the meeting.
Why didn’t she? She should have thought of that.
His dependent, helpless wife. She’s become quite inept, hasn’t she?
She really does need him. She needs him for everything.
Troy taps the red button. The vibrations stop. He switches the phone to silent, and he turns it face down.