Chapter 1 - CAB MONEY
My husband handed me fifteen dollars while I was in active labor and said, “Call a cab. I have dinner plans.”
That was the exact moment my marriage ended.
Not when he cheated.
Not when he emptied our savings.
Not when I found out he had been telling people I was unstable.
It ended at 7:18 on a rainy Thursday evening in Columbus, Ohio, when another contraction ripped through my body and Derek tossed a ten and a five onto our kitchen counter like he was tipping a waitress.
I gripped the edge of the island.
“Derek.”
He was standing by the junk drawer, digging for his Mercedes keys.
I breathed through the pain.
“They’re five minutes apart now.”
“I heard you.”
“You heard me?”
“Yes, Megan.”
He said my name with that tired, irritated tone he used whenever I became inconvenient.
“I have a client dinner.”
I actually laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes your brain refuses to accept what your ears just heard.
“I’m having your baby.”
“And I’m not a doctor.”
He found his keys and jingled them once in his hand.
“You know where Riverside is.”
I stared at him.
“You’re serious.”
“Don’t start.”
“Start what?”
“This.” He waved a hand at me. “The drama.”
Another contraction hit.
Harder this time.
I bent forward, eyes squeezed shut, breathing through my teeth.
Derek checked his watch.
That hurt almost more than the contraction.
When it finally eased, I looked up.
“You said you’d be there.”
“I said I’d try.”
“No. You said, ‘When labor starts, call me and I’ll drop everything.’”
He shrugged.
“Things change.”
I looked at the man I had slept beside for seven years and realized I didn’t know him anymore.
Maybe I never had.
For months, he’d skipped appointments.
Complained about the pregnancy pillow taking up too much room.
Rolled his eyes when my swollen ankles made it hard to stand.
When I woke him one night because I was scared I hadn’t felt the baby move, he told me I needed to “get a grip.”
Still, some pathetic little part of me had believed labor would change him.
That hearing me say, “It’s time,” would wake something up inside him.
Instead, he opened his wallet.
Ten dollars.
Five dollars.
He tossed both bills onto the granite.
“There. Taxi money.”
The bills slid to a stop beside my hospital bag.
For a few seconds, all I could hear was the rain tapping the kitchen windows.
Then something inside me went completely still.
I picked up the money.
Derek smirked like he had won.
Then I slipped off my wedding ring.
I placed it exactly where the fifteen dollars had been.
His smirk disappeared.
“What are you doing?”
I picked up my hospital bag.
“Taking a cab.”
“Megan.”
I walked toward the front door.
“Megan, don’t be ridiculous.”
I opened it.
Cold rain blew against my face.
Behind me, his voice sharpened.
“You walk out that door acting like this, don’t expect me to come chasing after you.”
I looked over my shoulder.
“That’s the first promise you’ve made in years that I actually believe.”
Then I stepped outside.
But I wasn’t going to Riverside Hospital.
And the car waiting at the end of our street wasn’t a cab.
It belonged to my sister.
May you like
And everything I owned that Derek didn’t know about was already in the trunk.
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