In the novel Death Comes as the End, Khay is the deceased husband of Renisenb. They were married some eight years before the events in the book. Khay died thereafter and Renisenb returned to the household of her father Imhotep together with their child Teti.
Renisenb thinks often about her late husband and recalled fondly his laughing face and broad shoulders. At one point, she meets a handsome man on a boat and thinks it is Khay come back to life but he turns out to be Kameni, a young scribe employed by her father.