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Chapter 156 — The Man Who Called First

ผู้เขียน: Spli_vena
last update วันที่เผยแพร่: 2026-08-15 23:15:58

Anita

Callum called on Thursday, his voice carrying the hesitation of someone who had clearly rehearsed the question several times before finally asking it out loud.

“I know I’ve been keeping my distance,” he said. “On purpose, mostly. I didn’t want to add anything else complicated to what Manny’s already carrying. But I keep thinking about him, and I wanted to ask, if it’s not too much, whether I could meet him properly. Not as a stranger from the news. Just as someone who cares how he’s doing
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  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 157 — The Verdict

    AnitaThree weeks passed faster than I expected them to, ordinary days stacking quietly on top of each other until the morning of sentencing arrived almost without warning, a date on a calendar suddenly, unavoidably, today.Kelvin drove us to the courthouse, Marcus and my father meeting us in the parking lot, all of us dressed carefully, the whole day carrying a weight none of us had quite prepared for despite three weeks of knowing it was coming.“You don’t have to go in,” my father said quietly, as we walked toward the entrance. “I know you said you wanted to. I just want you to know, one final time, that changing your mind right now would be completely understandable.”“I want to be there,” I said. “I need to see it end, the same way I watched it begin.”He nodded, and took my hand, and we walked in together.The courtroom was larger than the small family court room, formal in a way that made the whole morning feel heavier, rows of benches filling slowly with people I didn’t recogn

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 156 — The Man Who Called First

    AnitaCallum called on Thursday, his voice carrying the hesitation of someone who had clearly rehearsed the question several times before finally asking it out loud.“I know I’ve been keeping my distance,” he said. “On purpose, mostly. I didn’t want to add anything else complicated to what Manny’s already carrying. But I keep thinking about him, and I wanted to ask, if it’s not too much, whether I could meet him properly. Not as a stranger from the news. Just as someone who cares how he’s doing.”“He’d like that,” I said. “I think he already knows your name, actually. We’ve mentioned you a few times. He knows you’re the one who helped.”“I didn’t do the part that mattered most. That was you, and Kelvin, and his grandmother.”“You did the part that made all the rest of it possible. He should know that too.”We settled on Saturday afternoon, the studio’s small garden Ruth had cultivated behind the back room, string lights she’d apparently strung up sometime during the week without eithe

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 155 — Sentencing Anita

    Whitfield called on Monday morning, while I was still unpacking the small bag from ourweekend away, sand somehow still finding its way out of every pocket.“Sentencing’s been scheduled,” he said, no greeting, straight to the point as always. “Threeweeks from today. Given the confession, given the sheer scope of the charges, I don’texpect a lengthy trial, if there’s a trial at all in the traditional sense. His lawyer’s alreadysignaled he’ll enter a formal guilty plea.”“How long,” I asked. “If you had to guess.”“I don’t like guessing on sentencing, in case I’m wrong and you build your expectationsaround a number that doesn’t hold.” Whitfield’s voice had gone careful. “What I can tell youis that between the orchestrated accident, the ordered killing, the sustained poisoning of hisown mother, and the attempted abduction of a minor, the prosecution is asking for asentence that would keep him incarcerated for the remainder of his natural life.”I sat down slowly on the edge of the

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 154 — Sandcastles Anita

    Manny fell asleep against the car window twenty minutes into the drive, Sir Hops wedgedunder one arm, his small mouth open slightly, completely, blissfully unaware of how carefullyboth Kelvin and I had planned this weekend around the possibility of it going wrong.“He’s out cold,” Kelvin said quietly, glancing at him in the rearview mirror.“Good sign or bad sign.”“I think just a sign that seven-year-olds sleep in cars. Nothing more complicated than that.”I let myself believe him, mostly, and watched the coastline slowly begin to appear throughthe window, green fields giving way to something sandier, the horizon opening up in a waythat made my chest tighten before I’d fully decided why.“You okay,” Kelvin asked, catching my expression.“Coastlines are complicated for me now.”“We don’t have to do this. There are other places.”“No.” I made myself say it firmly, testing the certainty of it as I spoke. “I want this specifickind of complicated to stop meaning only one thing. I wan

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 153 — An Ordinary Tuesday Kelvin

    Manny had gone to bed an hour ago, worn out from a full day at the small primary school Anita had finally enrolled him in, his first week of something that resembled an ordinary childhood in longer than any of us wanted to count.I found Anita in the studio’s small kitchen, a cup of tea going cold in front of her, a sketchbook open to a page she wasn’t actually looking at.“You’re not drawing,” I said, settling into the chair across from her.“I’m thinking about drawing. That counts for something.”“Does it.”“It counts for something.” She smiled, small and tired in the good way, the kind of tired that came from a genuinely full day rather than the exhaustion we’d both been carrying for months. “He asked his teacher today if rabbits could come to school for show and tell. Apparently Sir Hops has a lot to offer the class.”I laughed, and reached across the table for her hand.“How was the rest of it. Actually.”“Good. Genuinely good.” She turned her hand over in mine, tracing the lines

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 152 — The Hearing Anita

    The family court building looked nothing like the police station or the room behind the one-way glass, warmer somehow, carpeted, a children’s play corner visible through one open door as we passed it on the way to the assigned courtroom.Marcus walked beside me, carrying a folder considerably thinner than the one that had once held Richard Hargrove’s confession, though what it lacked in bulk it made up for in what it represented.“This should be straightforward,” he said quietly. “Given the confession, given the kidnapping attempt, given everything already on record. The judge has all of it. This is largely a formality at this point, confirming what’s already true on paper.”“Largely,” I repeated.“There’s no such thing as guaranteed, in family court or anywhere else. But I’ve seen cases with a tenth of the evidence you have, and those families still walked out with what they needed.” Marcus glanced at me. “You’re not walking into this blind, or unsupported, or facing a version of Don

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 3-The routine

    The coffee machine made its noise at six forty-seven.I didn’t move to pour until it finished. I stood at the counter with my hands wrapped around nothing and listened to it run. That sound. The only sound in the whole house. The specific quiet that exists when you are the only one awake and have n

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 2-The silence after

    Donald did not say a word on the way home. Not one. Not when I fell into step beside him as the evening wound down. Not when we collected our coats and walked out into the cool Velmoor night. Not when he opened the car door for me with the quiet efficiency of a man performing a task he stopped t

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 1-The man at the door

    “The Meridian deal was always going to close in Q3,” I said. “Donald’s team structured it that way from the beginning. The timeline was never a surprise.” Mr. Alderman nodded like I had said something brilliant. His wife smiled at me and looked away in the same breath. The smile of a woman who se

  • The wife I swore I’d never be    Chapter 5-Still

    One message.A number I did not recognise.No words.Just a photograph.I sat on the edge of the bed in the dark and looked at it.Donald. Lying back against a woman I had never seen before. His head on her chest. Her hand resting in his hair like it belonged there. His face completely open in a wa

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