She picked up her teacup and sipped slowly while she looked out at the fence around the back garden.

“Are you going to go on living in this house by yourself?” Ruth asked.

“I lived here for three years before I married him,” I said.

“This house is mine.”

“He called my shop twice from a pay phone by the courthouse this afternoon,” Ruth said.

“What was he asking you?” I asked.

“He wanted me to sign an affidavit saying we were never legally married in Westfall,” Ruth said.

“And what’d you tell him?” I asked.