Page 83 of Two Wrongs

He lowers his arms, but his posture is still rigid. “It’s not? Okay, then. Tell me you’re not sleeping with my wife.”

I close my eyes, although one of them is helping me along by trying to swell shut. “I can’t,” I whisper.

His hands clench in his hair as he screams at the sky, “God fucking dammit!”

I flinch. As much as I love her, hurting him was the one thing I didn’t want to do. More than my need for her. Hell, I wanted to protect him more than my need to breathe.

I know this is the wrong thing to say, and the wrong time to say it, but he deserves to know I didn’t risk everything for a quick fuck. “I love her,” I admit.

Liam throws his hands up. “Fuck both of you! You can forget about rehab, I’m not going back. What point is there being sober when this is the shit I get to face?”

He spins on his heel and climbs back into his borrowed truck. His tires spin rocks back at us, one hits Wren on her forehead near her hairline. He’s oblivious to the trauma he leaves, as usual.

Neither of us speak or move until the rumble of his truck can’t be heard anymore. I turn to help her up, but she won’t let me. I can see blood smeared all over her hands, and rocks dug into her skin.

She’s shaking, but she won’t let me get close to her. I’m torn. I need to go after Liam before he drinks himself into a coma, or worse. Finding pills in this town won’t be hard, and he likely is already on the phone with his dealer. No idea where he’ll get the cash for it, but my son seems to be very resourceful when it suits him.

Wren whimpers quietly, catching my attention again. There’s a trickle of blood running down her face, and dripping into her eye. “Let’s get you inside and see to your injuries.”

She scoffs. “My injuries? Half your face is purple and your eye is swelling shut.”

“What did you expect me to do, hit him back?” I sound angry, but it’s at myself and this fucking situation.

She winces, and then her expression goes back to neutral. “Anything other than stand there and let him beat you like you deserved it.” Her words are hot, but her tone is flat. She’s losing the fight to see this through.

“I did!” I shout, the hurt and frustration is too much.

Wren nods, like she knew that’s how I felt. “Why do you think you deserved that?” She points her finger at my split lip, which only starts to sting now that she calls attention to it.

“Because even though he didn’t treat you the way you deserved, I knew he still loved you.”

She shakes her head, making more blood drip from the cut on her forehead. “I might be young, and I know I have a lot to learn, but I’ve seen love before. What my parents had, that was love.”

I look at my truck, wondering if it would be wrong for me to continue this discussion later so I can go and make sure he won’t end up in a puddle of his own vomit.

Wren follows the direction of my gaze. “Go on. I know you want to go after him.”

“I want to talk to you,” I tell her. I might be prioritizing taking care of him right now, but she’s still important to me. I need her to know that, to believe it.

“He’s your priority,” she says. Her voice sounds resigned.

When I come back I’ll tell her that I’m not ready to end this between us. The worst has already happened. He’s not going to get angrier at me. Somehow we can work through this. What I know for certain is, I was wrong to think I could walk away from her.

“We’ll talk,” I say, and pull my keys from my pocket.

It isn’t until I make it to the bar that I realize she never agreed to wait for me to come back.

34

Wren

A sob bursts free the moment Griffin’s truck leaves the driveway. I can’t be selfish anymore. Not that it matters, push did come to shove, and Griffin went running after Liam. This tangled web needs to be cut, before it strangles me.

I give myself a minute to be sorry for myself, and then I force myself to move. Once Griffin comes back it will be too late. I’ll look into his dark brown eyes, and all the resolve I have right now to do what needs to be done will evaporate. Sometimes we don’t want the things we need. I want Griffin, but I need to step out on my own.

I’ve never done that. Lived on my own. Thanks to Liam’s manipulations, I missed out on that important right of passage. I can’t make things right for Griffin, but I can start to right some wrongs in my own life.

My eyes sting with unshed tears, but I can’t stop right now. “Hi Patches,” I greet my cat. “We’re going to go on a little trip.”

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