I Had Already Signed Before He Landed

I sat in the car in my own driveway with the rain on the windshield and my daughter sleeping and the house lit up behind me, and for the first time since I had entered the code the first time and the keypad had flashed red, something in my chest cracked slightly and let the air out. "He took his family to Miami," I said.

Molly was quiet for one second. "Stay there," she said. "I'll come get you."

I stayed.

I reviewed Elliot's offer on Jennifer's laptop at Molly's kitchen table at nine-thirty that evening, with Ivy in the bassinet Molly had set up in the spare room and a cup of tea I did not drink going cold beside the laptop. The buyer was a development group that had been interested in the Redwood Crest property since the previous spring and had made their position clear through Jennifer. All-cash. Quick close. The number on the screen was not a number I needed, but it was the number that represented eleven years of a specific kind of work, and I looked at it for a long time.

I signed the offer letter at ten forty-seven.

Jennifer filed the preliminary paperwork that night. She sent me a text at eleven-twelve that said moving quickly and I put my phone face-down on the nightstand and lay in Molly's spare room with Ivy making small sounds in the bassinet and stared at the ceiling and felt, not triumph exactly, but something in the same neighborhood. Something that had been building for four years and had finally been given somewhere to go.

Brent called at seven-fifteen the next morning. I did not answer. He called again at seven-twenty and seven-thirty and seven-forty-one and by eight o'clock he had called eleven times and sent four text messages, the first of which said call me and the last of which said Tessa this is serious you need to call me right now, and I read them all in sequence and then put the phone back in my bag.

Jennifer called at eight-fifteen. "Brent's attorney has been in contact," she said. "He's claiming the house is a marital asset."

"Is it?"

"No," Jennifer said. "Not under the terms of your prenuptial agreement, which he signed, which is clear and current and has never been challenged. His attorney knows this. He's posturing."

"Let him posture," I said.

"Tessa. He's coming home."