Chapter 4

**Gabriel's POV**

At 6 PM, my phone buzzed in the middle of a board meeting.

It was Mr. Grant. He never called during meetings unless something was wrong.

I stepped out into the hallway. "What is it?"

"Mr. Stone, I'm sorry to bother you. It's about your wife."

*My wife.* After today, nobody should call her that anymore.

"Is it done?" I asked.

There was a pause. "No, sir. She didn't sign."

I stopped walking. "What do you mean, she didn't sign?"

"She refused. She pushed the papers back and said 'not today.' Mrs. Margaret Stone had her removed from the house."

"Removed?"

"Security walked her out, sir. In the rain."

Something cold moved in my chest. "And the money? Did she take the check?"

"No, sir. She left it on your desk. She didn't take one dollar."

I stood there in the hallway with the phone against my ear. People walked past me and said "Good evening, Mr. Stone." I didn't answer them.

Ivy had nothing. No family, no house and no savings. I knew that because I had read her file before the wedding. She needed that money more than anyone I had ever met.

And she left it on my desk.

"Mr. Stone? Are you there?"

"I'm coming home," I said, and hung up.

---

The house was bright and noisy when I walked in. There was still a big cake on the kitchen counter from Sabrina's party last night. Tessa was lying on the couch with her phone. Margaret was in the living room with a glass of wine.

"Gabriel!" She stood up and smiled. "You're early. Good. I have news."

"Where is Ivy?"

Her smile didn't move, but her eyes did. Just a little.

"Gone," she said. "And good riddance. I didn't want to tell you on the phone, but that girl stole from us."

"Stole what?"

"Your grandmother's diamond bracelet. The one from the safe. I checked after she left and it was gone." She shook her head and sighed. "After everything we did for her. I always said she was only here for money."

"She left the money on my desk," I said.

Margaret blinked. "Well. Maybe she thought the bracelet was worth more."

Tessa laughed from the couch without looking up.

Behind me, I heard soft steps. Sabrina came down the stairs in a white sweater, her eyes red, like she had been crying.

"Gabe," she said softly. She came to me and put her arms around my waist. "I'm so glad you're home. It was awful today. Ivy screamed at me. She said terrible things. She said I stole you from her."

I looked down at her. Sabrina had always been beautiful. In college, I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

But right now, I was thinking of a different face. A pale face with tired eyes, standing in my office last night.

*Gabriel, I need to tell you something.*

And I walked away from her. I walked away to answer Sabrina's call.

"There's one more thing," Margaret said. She sat back down and crossed her legs. "Dr. Hale came this morning, just like the contract asks. He did the test. She's not pregnant. Thank God. Can you imagine the mess?"

I stared at her.

"I didn't know Dr. Hale was coming," I said.

"Why would you? It's a small thing. I handled it."

She smiled at me the same way she smiled at me when I was ten years old and my father brought her home for the first time. It's a smile I never trusted.

"Excuse me," I said.

I pulled away from Sabrina and walked toward the kitchen.

"Gabe?" Sabrina called after me. "Where are you going?"

I didn't answer.

---

I hadn't been in the laundry room since I was a boy. When I opened the door, I stopped.

There was a small room behind it, with no window, only a thin mattress on the floor and a broken lamp.

"She slept here last night?" I asked out loud.

Nobody answered. My hands curled into fists.

One year. One year she lived in my house, and I never once asked if she was okay. I told myself it was better that way. I told myself the less I cared, the safer she would be.

Now I stood in that tiny room and felt like the smallest man alive.

In the corner was a plant, an old fern. Grandma Eleanor gave it to Ivy when she first came to work for her. I remembered because Ivy carried it into the house on our wedding day like it was a baby.

The fern was dying. Its leaves had turned brown and dry, and they curled up like burned paper. The soil smelled sour. It smelled like oranges and something else, something like medicine.

A plant doesn't die in one night.

Unless someone pours something into it.

"Sir?"

I turned around. Maria, the youngest maid, was standing in the doorway. She was holding something behind her back, and her face was white.

"Maria. What is it?"

She looked over her shoulder at the hallway, then back at me. Her voice was so low I almost couldn't hear it.

"Mrs. Stone told us to burn all of Miss Ivy's things. Everything she left. But I couldn't burn this one. I'm sorry, sir. I'm so sorry."

She brought her hands out from behind her back.

It was a coat. An old brown coat with one button missing.

Ivy's coat. She wore it every single day, even when Tessa laughed at it. Even when Margaret told her she looked like a beggar.

Maria pushed it into my hands. "Please don't tell Mrs. Stone I kept it. Please."

"I won't," I said.

She nodded fast and hurried away.

I stood alone with the coat in my hands. It was still a little damp from the rain. It smelled like her, like soap and vanilla. I didn't know I knew what she smelled like until that moment.

I thought about the night of the storm. The night Grandma got sick. I came home and I couldn't breathe. I walked past my own room and stopped at hers. I don't know why. I just knew I didn't want to be alone, and she was the only person in this house who ever looked at me like I was a person and not a bank account.

The next morning, I acted like it never happened. I told myself it was a mistake.

I had told myself a lot of things.

I put my hand into the coat's right pocket. There was a bus card and a hair tie.

I put my hand into the left pocket.

My fingers touched something soft. Tissue paper, folded around something hard and thin.

I pulled it out and unwrapped it slowly.

It was a white plastic stick.

I knew what it was before my brain could say the word. My heart stopped.

Two pink lines.

Clear as day.

Margaret's voice came back to me from the living room, sweet and calm. *Dr. Hale did the test. She's not pregnant. Thank God.*

My hands started to shake.

"She's pregnant," I whispered.

Behind me, a soft voice spoke from the doorway.

"Gabe? What do you have in your hand?"

I turned around.

Sabrina was standing there. She was looking at the test, and she wasn't crying anymore.