Chapter 2 - The Ride Home Without Nolan
Ava called her sister, Grace, from the church parking lot.
She did not call Nolan.
She did not let him drive her home.
Grace arrived twenty minutes later and found Ava sitting on a low stone wall beside the church, dusty, angry, and still trembling from what had happened in the annex.
Nolan stood nearly fifty feet away.
He had respected Ava’s order not to come closer.
Sabrina was gone.
Grace helped Ava into the passenger seat.
Only after the car doors closed did she ask, “Do we need the hospital?”
“The baby’s moving.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Ava looked at her.
“My ankles were tied loosely. Sabrina scared me. She kicked things beside me. She didn’t hit my stomach.”
Grace nodded.
“We’re still getting you checked.”
Ava did not argue.
At the hospital, the baby’s heart rate was normal.
Ava had no signs of labor.
Physically, she and the baby were safe.
Emotionally, she was nowhere close.
Nolan called nine times.
He left four messages.
The first said he could explain.
The second said Sabrina was lying.
The third said Sabrina was “twisting something that happened months ago.”
Ava stopped there.
Months ago.
That was already different from lying.
Grace saw Ava’s expression.
“What?”
“He just admitted there was something to twist.”
Ava played the fourth message.
Nolan’s voice sounded exhausted.
“Please don’t make decisions until you hear the whole thing. Sabrina knows exactly what she’s doing.”
Ava almost laughed.
Of course Sabrina knew.
That did not mean Nolan was innocent.
The next morning, Nolan came to Grace’s house.
Ava agreed to speak with him on the porch.
He looked terrible.
His cheek was still red from Sabrina’s slap.
Ava remained standing.
“So?”
Nolan swallowed.
“Sabrina and I slept together once.”
Ava stared at him.
“When?”
“Last October.”
Ava calculated instantly.
They had already been married eleven months.
She had not been pregnant yet.
Nolan spoke quickly.
“We were separated.”
“No, we weren’t.”
“We had that week where you stayed with Grace.”
Ava’s face hardened.
“That was after you told me you weren’t sure you wanted children.”
“I thought we were done.”
“You called me every night.”
Nolan looked away.
Ava suddenly understood why Sabrina’s wording had been so precise.
You came back to me after her.
Not after the divorce.
Not after a breakup.
After Ava.
Nolan insisted it had happened once.
A mistake.
An ugly week.
He claimed he had ended it immediately.
Ava listened.
Then asked the question that made him hesitate.
“If it ended last October, why did Sabrina know I was going to be in that church annex yesterday?”
Nolan did not answer.
May you like
Ava felt the first explanation collapse.
Whatever happened between them had not ended as cleanly as Nolan wanted her to believe.
