My Wedding Dress In The Garage His Widow In My Home Chapter 04
I ignored Owen and shut the bedroom door.
Inside the home-purchase folder on our shared drive were more than a dozen subfolders. I clicked through them one by one until I found a file that had been uploaded the day before.
Residential Lease Agreement.
I had never seen it before.
I opened it. The first page listed the property address. The rental area was the entire first floor of the duplex. The tenant was Paige Reed.
The rent was one dollar a month.
The term was unlimited.
On the final page, Owen’s electronic signature was already in place.
Dated yesterday.
My hands began to shake.
That floor had been for my mother. When we first toured the house, Owen had held my hand and said the step-free first floor would be perfect for her after her surgery.
Now, he had signed her future over to Paige for a dollar.
I heard the front door close.
I went to the window and saw Owen hurrying to his car.
I called him.
“I saw the lease.”
There was a beat of silence on the other end.
“What lease?”
“The one renting the first floor of the new house to Paige. One dollar a month, unlimited term. You signed it yesterday.”
His voice dropped.
“That’s just a letter of intent. I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet.”
“A signed agreement isn’t a letter of intent.”
“Nora, why do you always assume the worst of Paige? She just needs a stable place to live.”
“That’s our house. Most of the down payment is mine.”
“I’m not arguing with you about this right now.”
A car horn blared on his end of the line.
“Paige’s car broke down. I have to go help her. We’ll talk when I get back.”
“We close on the house tomorrow. When, exactly, were you planning on telling me?”
He hung up.
Almost at the same instant, a notification popped up from Instagram.
Paige had just posted a selfie.
In the photo, she was sitting in a passenger seat while Owen leaned over to buckle her seatbelt. They were so close their shoulders were touching, both of them smiling.
The caption read:
*Roadside disaster. Good thing my knight always shows up in time.*
Someone commented: *He’s always the first one there, isn’t he?*
Paige replied with a red heart emoji.
I turned off my phone. Suddenly, even the anger was gone.
All I felt was tired.
Not the kind of tired that comes from a sleepless night.
The kind that settles in your bones when you finally understand that no matter how much ground you give, they will keep pushing until there’s no room left for you in your own life.
The family iPad was on the nightstand.
I picked it up. The screen lit up automatically, open to the cloud recordings from our home security app.
The most recent saved video was from two nights ago.
In the thumbnail, two people stood under the porch light.
I tapped play.
At 11:07 p.m., Owen walked Paige to the door. She turned and hugged him. He didn’t push her away.
The next second, he lowered his head and kissed her.
Not on the forehead. Not a kiss of comfort.
They stood on my front porch, kissing for more than ten seconds.
Just as the video ended, an iMessage banner slid down from the top of the screen.
The iPad was synced to Owen’s account.
I opened the conversation.
His last message to Paige was right there.
*Don’t worry about the lease. Let Nora wire the down payment first. Once the house closes, we’ll tell her.*
I stared at that sentence for a long, long time.
That same night, Owen had come into our bedroom, wrapped his arms around me from behind, and told me the wedding and the new house were putting him under a lot of pressure.
He had said, “I’m so lucky to have you.”
And while he was holding me, he was thinking about how to get my money first—before handing the home that was supposed to be mine to another woman.
I set the iPad down.
The last of my hope broke, quietly and completely.
I didn’t call anyone.
I downloaded the lease, took screenshots of the bank records, the doorbell video, and every single message. I backed them all up to my private cloud and sent another copy to a new email address I had just created.
Once I confirmed everything was saved, I pulled out my suitcase.
My ID. My laptop. My medication. My clothes.
I only packed what belonged to me.
Paige’s mug was still on the dining table. Sadie’s toys were piled in the hallway. That engagement party photo hung on the wall, with me standing awkwardly at the edge of the frame.
I didn’t touch any of it.
Finally, I went to the garage.
My wedding dress was still shoved into the corner. The garment bag felt cold and damp under my fingers. I lifted it out and put it in the trunk of my car.
I didn’t look back.
There was no reason to.