You Have Nobody

Callie's POV

Mason came on the third day.

I heard him before I saw him. His voice was in the hallway, sharp and impatient, telling someone on the phone that he didn't have time for this and that the meeting would have to wait. Then the door opened, and my husband walked into my hospital room for the first time since the crash.

He looked perfect. Fresh dark suit, clean shave, and hair combed back the way he liked it. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he had spent the last three days resting at a spa. The only sign that anything had happened was the white tape wrapped around his fingers, where the metal had cut him while he was saving her.

He stopped at the end of my bed and looked at me. His eyes moved over the cast on my leg, the stitches on my forehead, and the bruises on my arms. I waited for something to change in his face. Guilt, or shock, or even a little bit of pain.

Nothing changed.

"You look better than I thought you would," he said.

Theo was standing by the window. He had finally gone home that morning to shower and change, but he had come straight back with coffee and a bag of the lemon cookies I liked from the bakery near my house. I didn't even know he knew about those cookies.

Mason looked at him and frowned. "Theo. Can you give us a minute?"

Theo didn't move. He looked at me instead. "Callie?"

"It's okay," I said. "I'll be fine."

Theo picked up his coffee and walked to the door. As he passed Mason, he stopped and said something too low for me to hear. Mason's jaw went hard. Then Theo was gone, and the door closed behind him, and it was just the two of us.

Mason pulled the chair away from the bed and sat down. He didn't take my hand. He didn't come close. He sat the way he sat in business meetings, with one leg crossed over the other, like I was a deal he needed to close quickly.

"I know you're upset," he said.

I almost laughed. Upset. Like I had found out he forgot to buy milk.

"You left me there," I said. "You looked right at me, Mason. I saw you look at me. And you turned around and walked away."

"I didn't see you," he said. "It was dark, and it was raining, and Kendra was screaming. I was only thinking aboutgetting her out."

"You looked at me," I said again.

He rubbed his eyes like I was giving him a headache. "Callie, I'm not here to fight. I came because there are things we need to talk about before you go home. The press has been calling. People are asking questions about the crash, about why you were in the car with her. My lawyers think it's best if we keep everything quiet for now."

"Quiet," I said.

"Kendra is very fragile right now," he said. "The doctors said stress isn't good for the baby. She's been crying for three days because she feels like this is all her fault. So I need you to promise me you won't make a scene. No talking to reporters. No calling her. When you get home, we'll sit down and work out what happens next like two adults."

I stared at him. I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. I had broken bones, and stitches in my head, and I had almost died in that car, and he was here to ask me to be quiet so his girlfriend wouldn't feel bad.

"Was any of it real?" I asked.

He looked confused. "Any of what?"

"Our marriage," I said. "Five years. Was any of it real for you? Did you ever love me even a little, or was I just someone to keep the house clean while you lived your real life?"

For the first time, something moved behind his eyes. But it was gone so fast that I wasn't sure I saw it.

"This isn't the time for that conversation," he said.

"It's the only conversation I want to have."

"Callie." He said my name the way you talk to a child who won't go to bed. "You married me knowing what my life was like. You knew I worked. You knew I wasn't the kind of man who brings flowers home every night. I gave you a good life. A big house, nice clothes, everything you could want. I never hurt you."

"You never hurt me," I said slowly.

"Not on purpose," he said. "And I never lied to you."

"You had a baby with another woman."

His face went cold again. "That just happened. It wasn't planned. And I won't let my child grow up without a father, so you need to get used to the idea that Kendra is going to be in my life from now on."

The room went very quiet. I could hear the machine beeping beside me, slow and even. I could hear my own heartbeat.

Three days ago, those words would have broken me into pieces. Three days ago, I would have cried and begged him to tell me what I did wrong, and I would have promised to be better, to be prettier, to be more interesting, anything to make him stay.

But that woman died in the car. I felt her go.

"I want a divorce," I said.

Mason looked at me for a long moment. Then he smiled. It wasn't a kind smile. It was the smile of a man who had heard a joke that wasn't very funny.

"You don't mean that," he said.

"I mean it."

"You're on painkillers, and you're angry, and you're not thinking clearly." He stood up and buttoned his jacket. "When you get home, you'll feel differently. You always do."

"I'm not coming home," I said.

He laughed then, a short, quiet laugh, and walked to the door. He put his hand on the handle and turned back to look at me.

"Where would you go, Callie?" he asked. "Think about it. You have no job. You have no money of your own. Your parents are gone, and every friend you have is my friend first. You gave up your whole life to marry me." He shook his head almost gently. "Without me, you have nothing. You have nobody."

The door opened before I could answer.

Theo was standing in the doorway with my discharge papers in his hand. He looked at Mason, and then he looked at me, and his voice was calm and clear.

"She has me," he said.