His Automated Reply Cost Him His Wife Chapter 01

His Automated Reply Cost Him His Wife Chapter 01

When I came out of the UCSF emergency operating room, I sent my husband, Ethan, a text.

The baby is gone.

Two words flashed onto the screen almost instantly.

Got it.

Staring at the cold, automated reply, I laughed.

Three years ago, when the Marin wildfire had spread and trapped me inside a car filling with smoke, I’d sent him dozens of texts begging for help.

*I can’t breathe. Help me!*

*I sent you the address. Hurry!*

*Ethan, I’m begging you…*

He had replied to every single one with the same two words.

Got it.

Only later did I learn it wasn’t some driving mode.

It was a Focus mode my husband, the Bay Area elite Ethan Ward, had set up specifically for me, a filter to keep him from being disturbed by my “trivial matters.”

Every message I sent him was silenced, archived, and answered with an automatic *Got it*.

My desperate pleas for my life were trivial.

So was the child I had just lost.

His time, his concern—it all went to a girl named Lena, the daughter of his deceased friend.

Right now, he was busy preparing for the “Marin Wildfire Relief Charity Gala.” On the program, the names of the guests of honor were listed as Ethan Ward & Lena Price.

And I, his lawful wife, hadn’t even been told.

On my phone was the gala invitation he’d forwarded, a curt reminder for me to attend.

I opened it and replied.

Got it.

Today was the anniversary of the day I had barely escaped that wildfire.

And it was the day I decided to bury him, and our marriage, for good.

…

I returned alone to our home in Marin County. The house felt as hollow as I did, so empty the silence tightened my chest.

Out of habit, I reached for my phone, about to ask Ethan why he still wasn’t home at three in the morning.

But after Face ID unlocked the screen, that lifeless wall of *Got it* brought me back to reality.

I scoffed at myself. What a pathetic reflex. Nearly three years, and I still hadn’t broken my worst habit: expecting anything from him.

*Click.*

The soft sound of the keypad lock came from downstairs.

I walked out of the bedroom just in time to see Ethan shrugging off his windbreaker.

“The security system in Lena’s new apartment was acting up. I went over to help her with it.” He tossed his keys onto the tray in the entryway, the metal clattering with a crisp, bright ring.

He walked over, poured me a glass of water, and handed it to me with the practiced ease of a routine. “Why are you still up?”

“Just got back,” I said flatly.

He walked into the bathroom. “Why weren’t you at the office today?” he asked through the door.

He picked up the Dyson hair dryer, plugged it in, and switched it on.

“I had surgery,” I said.

My voice was swallowed by the roar of the machine.

He was always like this. He didn’t even have the patience to let me finish a sentence.

My gaze fell to the keys he’d thrown down. Hanging from the ring was a hand-polished brass keychain engraved with latitude and longitude coordinates—the location of our first apartment. It was the anniversary gift I had given him.

Ethan came out of the bathroom, toweling his hair, and saw me staring at the keys.

He walked over, closed his hand around the keychain, and rubbed it carefully in his palm. A tenderness crept into his voice that even he didn’t seem to notice. “Lena said she’s been having bad luck lately, so I gave this to her as a lucky charm. To protect her.”

My heart felt like it had been pricked by a needle, a dense pain that spread through my chest.

“Ethan, where’s your wedding ring?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe.

He switched off the hair dryer and casually pushed back his damp blond hair. “Took it off.”

“I don’t like the feeling of metal trapping my finger,” he explained. “It’s inconvenient when I’m sketching at the studio, too.”

“Then why have you kept that keychain all this time?” I looked at the hand still shielding it. “That’s metal.”

“That’s different,” he said. “This means something. The ring just digs into my hand. You’re the only one who actually likes wearing yours every day.”

I glanced down at the ring on my own finger.

My Tiffany diamond wedding ring had been locked in a safe for months.

The one I was wearing now was something I’d picked up from a rack two months ago while standing in line at Target. Eighteen dollars, and even the fake rhinestone glittered cheaply.

My husband hadn’t noticed for two months.

Or maybe he just hadn’t really looked at me in far too long.

“All right. Get some sleep.”

He came over and rubbed the top of my head as if soothing a pet, then turned and walked into the guest room at the end of the hall.

Ever since we’d decided to “try for a baby,” he had moved into the guest room. He said he worked late and was afraid the blue light from his laptop and the sound of his keyboard would disturb my sleep.

But I knew the truth. He just wanted space and freedom, so that after taking Lena home every night, he could still spend hours on the phone with her, talking about God knows what.

Once, I’d gotten up for water at four in the morning and saw light spilling from under the guest room door. I could hear his deliberately hushed laughter and the soft tapping of his keyboard.

In the past, I might have thrown the door open and confronted him.

But now, none of it mattered.

My phone screen lit up with a new email from my lawyer. The subject line read: *Preliminary Advice on No-Fault Divorce Procedure and Division of Assets.*

I opened it and skimmed the contents.

Then I attached the screenshot of my message history with Ethan—the endless wall of *Got it*—along with bank records showing he’d paid the down payment for Lena’s apartment and her car.

I hit Send.

Then I returned to the bedroom, wrapped myself tightly in the blanket, and closed my eyes.