Page 54 of Two Wrongs

A shaky breath puffs past my lips. “Logically, I know all of this happened because of his addiction. Knowing doesn’t take away the pain or feeling like I failed.”

Griffin’s dark eyes, usually a warm chocolatey brown, cool as he narrows them on me. “That’s not why.”

He takes a deep breath, and his hands tighten into fists on the top of his thighs. The tendons strain over bones and his knuckles turn white. “I don’t want you thinking of another man when you’re with me. I need to consume you, be your everything.”

This truth is hard to part with. Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to keep this locked deep, but the rawness in his gaze rips it from me. “You already are,” I whisper.

“I don’t need another reason to be angry at my son. He stole from me, lied to me, but what feels like the biggest offense isn’t even something I am allowed to be angry about.”

My pulse pounds and my hands go clammy. I don’t know how many more hits I can take when it comes to Liam, and I’m afraid to hear what Griffin is going to say. “I don’t want to know.” I look up at him, and see a pained look on his face.

He rubs one of his fists hard against the center of his chest. “Yeah, well I don’t want to feel this, but here we are. I don’t like being pissed at my son because the woman I’m falling in love with misses him.”

“What?” I ask. His words hang around me like a fog, muddling my thoughts and turning everything I thought I knew upside down.

Griffin gets up and starts to pace around the living room. “You heard me. I don’t want you thinking about Liam, because I don’t want you to think about any other men. Not even if one of them is my own son. My business is falling apart, my son is in rehab, and all I can think about is when I’m going to get to see you, and how many more times I’ll get to be with you before this all blows up in our faces.”

“Oh,” I sigh.

My reaction seems to make him more agitated. “Oh? That’s it? I basically tell you I’m obsessed with you, and all you say is ‘Oh’?”

I shrug. “I thought you were going to tell me he’s done something else. I can’t imagine what more he could have done that would be worse than everything he’s already done, but I didn’t want to find out.”

He turns his back to me. “I am so fucked.”

Without thinking, I go to him. Every muscle in his body is coiled tight, and I want to soothe him in any way I can. He shakes when I wrap my arms around him, and lets me hold him for a minute before he turns around in my arms. He doesn’t say anything, just holds me to him.

“I’m not in love with Liam,” I admit. My chest expands with the release of those words.

“But you were so upset.” His forehead rumples as he tries to suss out what I’m thinking.

He leads me back to the couch and waits for me to compose myself. “I think I need you to explain that,” he says.

A laugh escapes me, and I cover my mouth. “Yeah,” I say after I regain composure. “I think I might need someone to explain it to me too. I only just realized it now as the words came out of my mouth. I don’t know when it happened. Was it over the six months I sat alone wondering where he was and what was happening to my marriage? Was it when I saw him fucking some random woman in the back of the car I bought him? Or was it the first time you touched me? I don’t know, and honestly it’s freaking me out a little.”

Griffin brushes my hair away from my face. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention to what you were going through. All that time you spent alone, ignored, and I didn’t even know you were suffering.”

No one was paying attention. My mind whirls to the place I swore I’d never go back to. Absent-mindedly, I rub my thumb across my left wrist. His eyes drop to my hand, and I quickly drop it.

He reaches out and grabs my arm. I try and yank free, but he digs his fingers in to keep hold of my wrist. His thumb traces across the same spot mine did, and I know he feels it. Two raised lines. A reminder of the worst night of my life.

“Wren, tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” he demands.

“I can’t,” I mutter.

He doesn’t say anything, just turns and walks out of the room. I hear something shatter from the other side of the house.

Shame is heavy. It’s hard for me to face myself, let alone someone else, especially Griffin. No one outside of my doctor knows about that night. I’d have kept it that way if I could have.

22

Griffin

Hot, consuming rage swells up inside of me at myself, Liam and even Wren. Mostly at myself though. Fear follows closely behind. The kind that claws at your insides and makes it feel like you can’t take a deep enough breath. Which only makes me more angry for feeling so out of control.

It’s not a feeling I’m well equipped to handle. I hurry out of the room before I say something to make everything worse. Being away from her isn’t enough to calm the storm brewing inside of me. I grab a lamp off the nightstand in my room, rip the chord from the wall, and throw it across the room.

The ceramic base shatters against the wall, but it doesn’t help alleviate the tight ball constricting my chest. Wren bursts into my room and freezes in the doorway. Her eyes search desperately until she finds me sitting on the floor by my bed trying to control my breathing.

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