When Family Became a Place I Couldn’t Return To novel Chapter 22

Brody looked up, his eyes quietly locking on Nelly.

His gaze was as dark and unreadable as ever, but there was something shadowed behind it now, a kind of cautious curiosity that hadn’t been there before. He tried to remember the last time he’d actually seen her, but it slipped away from him. Her face was almost exactly as he remembered, but everything else was different, like the way she carried herself, the color in her cheeks, or even her clothes… She felt like someone he didn’t know at all.

For a second, he nearly forgot that Nelly had never spoken to him this way. She was always gentle with him, always thoughtful and soft-spoken. Even after they got married, she kept her distance, always careful not to cross his boundaries, but her eyes never hid the way she love him wholheartedly.

But now, this coldness, this almost reckless way she spoke, it was brand new.

“Did Marian give you the papers?”

“Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

They both spoke at the same time, and Nelly instantly got it. Brody hadn’t been home yet. He hadn’t seen the divorce papers.

It was almost ridiculous. She could disappear, turn to dust, and he probably wouldn’t even notice.

A mix of anger and sadness bubbled up inside her, and she let out a sharp laugh. “Brody, this isn’t sudden at all. I should’ve done this ages ago.”

“Are you sick?”

Brody reached out and pressed his palm to her forehead. Before she could react, he pulled her close and started checking her over, concern flickering across his face.

“Brody, what are you doing?” Nelly pulled away from him, her voice shaking. After all these years, they had never been this close.

She squeezed her hands into fists, her whole body tense. She didn’t even know how to let it all out, and her eyes started to sting with tears she wasn’t ready to show.

“I heard from Jessie that you were hospitalized. A stomach bleed, right?”

Brody picked up on her mood. For the first time, he didn’t seem to care about her crossing a line. He stepped forward and grabbed her hand again.

He hesitated, then spoke quietly. “Carrie’s school performance ran late. That’s all.”

Liar!

She’d seen him herself. She watched him walk with Sheila and Carrie, hand in hand, right into a bakery. On the day they should’ve been remembering their son, he was out celebrating with someone else. And now he could stand here and lie straight to her face.

Nelly opened her mouth to call him out. Before she could say a word, Brody’s phone buzzed loudly.

He almost ignored it, but the caller ID flashed Sheila’s name.

“Hello?”

“Brody, it’s bad. You need to get to the hospital. Carrie’s been in an accident. She’s in the ER!”