My husband had promised to bring me and our newborn daughter home from the hospital, but when I stepped outside, his entire family was sitting in my SUV, and there wasn’t a single seat left for us. My mother-in-law looked through the passenger window and smiled as though she’d won something. Then my husband leaned out from behind the steering wheel and said six words I will never forget: “You’ll have to find another ride.”
Chapter 2
I watched Delaney’s video while Sloan slept beside me in her hospital bassinet. My hands were shaking, but not from fear. Somewhere between the white ribbons and Karen’s proud smile, my husband’s earlier promise suddenly made perfect sense.
He had been waiting until I gave birth.
I called him immediately.
“Vance, why is Delaney driving my car?”
He hesitated.
“She’s just borrowing it for pictures.”
“Then why is she telling everyone it’s hers?”
“Harper, don’t start. You’ve just had a baby. You need to rest.”
I stared at the wall.
“Bring my vehicle back before I’m discharged.”
He sighed.
“We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
Then he hung up.
Ten minutes later, Karen called.
“Sweetheart, we have wonderful plans for you tomorrow,” she announced. “The entire family is coming to take you home. You’ll be treated like a queen.”
I asked whether Delaney planned to return my car.
Karen laughed.
“Well, you’re going to be home with the baby for months. Delaney needs a respectable vehicle now that she’s marrying into the Sterling family. Vance agrees that you should help.”
“Help how?”
“By transferring the SUV to her. It’s just paperwork. Vance will bring everything tomorrow.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
“Karen, I am not giving anyone my car.”
“Don’t be selfish. You have a husband who will soon be a dealership director. He can buy you another one.”
I ended the call.
Then I contacted my mother.
Nora Thorne was a quiet woman who loved gardening and disliked confrontation. But when I explained what had happened, her voice became unexpectedly firm.
“That is enough,” she said. “Your father and I will handle getting you home. You concentrate on Sloan.”
I asked her to make sure Vance couldn’t enter my apartment without my permission.
“Already working on it,” she replied.
The apartment belonged to me before my marriage, and I had never added Vance to the deed. Mom agreed to help secure it properly and arrange for his belongings to be collected without an argument.
Next, I called Mac, my father’s oldest employee and a tow truck driver I had known since childhood.
“I may need help recovering my SUV tomorrow.”
“Where?” he asked.
“Outside Riverside Maternity Hospital.”
“I’ll be there.”
Then I called Dad.
He listened without interrupting.
When I finished, he asked one question.
“Did Vance know you had refused?”
“Yes.”
“Did he take it anyway?”
“Yes.”
Dad was quiet.
“Then it’s time we had that conversation I mentioned.”
Before hanging up, he added, “I have a business matter to settle with your husband, too.”
I wondered what he meant, but Sloan began crying for her next feeding, and I had something far more important to attend to.
Later that afternoon, my younger sister-in-law, Brin, appeared at my hospital room door.
She was twenty-four, shy, and usually overshadowed by her mother and older sister. She held a little knitted rabbit with uneven ears.
“I made this for Sloan,” she said.
I thanked her and placed it beside the bassinet.
Brin remained near the doorway, twisting her fingers.
“Harper, there’s something you should know.”
She told me Delaney had advertised my SUV for sale online. Someone had already given her a substantial deposit, and she had spent part of it on an extravagant wedding dress.
I stared at her.
“She sold a vehicle she doesn’t own?”
“She’s counting on you signing it over tomorrow,” Brin whispered. “Mom said once you sign, everything will be fine.”
“Why are you telling me?”
Brin’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because it’s wrong. And because I’m tired of pretending everything Delaney wants belongs to her.”
She left before I could answer.
That night, I barely slept.
The next morning, Vance arrived wearing an expensive cream-colored suit and carrying white roses. Behind him came a young man holding a phone mounted on a filming rig.
“Meet Chase,” Vance announced. “He’s making a little family video of us taking Sloan home.”
I looked at the camera.
“Not inside my hospital room.”
Chase lowered it immediately.
Vance’s smile tightened.
“Harper, don’t be difficult.”
He handed me a plastic folder.
“Before we go, sign this. It’s something for the baby’s insurance.”
I opened the folder.
Inside was the original title to my silver SUV, along with a prepared transfer document naming Delaney as the new owner.
The stated sale price was one dollar.
I looked up.
“This isn’t a health insurance form.”
Vance’s face changed.
“Mom must’ve mixed up the paperwork.”
“Then I’ll keep it so there isn’t another mistake.”
I placed the documents in my bag.
He leaned closer.
“You’re embarrassing me.”
“No, Vance. You’re doing that yourself.”
We rode downstairs in silence.
In the elevator, his phone rang. A woman from corporate headquarters informed him that the owner of Thorne Automotive Group wanted to meet him personally that afternoon.
Vance nearly shouted with excitement.
“He’s coming to see me! Harper, this is it. The director’s position is mine.”
I looked down at Sloan.
“I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.”
The elevator doors opened onto a scene that looked more like a television production than a maternity discharge.
Karen stood beneath a cluster of balloons, broadcasting a live video. Delaney posed in a white pantsuit while two musicians played an awkward version of “Isn’t She Lovely.”
Several visitors stared.
Vance hurried forward, took Sloan from my arms without asking, and turned toward Chase’s camera.
“Look at my beautiful daughter!”
I carefully took her back.
“She’s a baby, Vance. Not a publicity photograph.”
Karen laughed loudly.
“New mothers can be so emotional!”
I ignored her and walked outside.
At the curb stood my silver SUV, polished and decorated like a wedding limousine. Karen climbed into the front passenger seat, Delaney and Brin squeezed into the back with Aunt Rita, and Vance took the wheel.
I stood there holding Sloan.
There was nowhere for us to sit.
When I opened the rear door, Vance leaned across the seat.
“Can’t you see we’re full? Go with your mother.”
My voice came out barely above a whisper.
“That’s my car.”
Karen rolled down her window.
“Stop being dramatic. We’re going to the country club first, and then we’ll sort everything out.”
I took one step backward.
And that was when my father appeared beside me.
