Page 89 of Two Wrongs

“Tell me son—” I’m breathing heavily through my nose, trying hard to keep a rein on the little bit of control I’ve got, “what did either of us really owe you?”

“You’re my dad,” he says gruffly.

“And I’ll always be your dad, but you’re going to be a dad yourself, and it’s time you start acting like it.”

Liam suddenly jumps down from the tailgate and hurls the empty bottle towards a nearby tree. “I don’t want that. I’ve never wanted kids, at least not now.”

“Wanted or not, you’ve got one coming,” I remark.

“I don’t know if I can forgive you,” he changes the subject.

“Then I guess I’m going to have to live with that. It’ll be hard, but I know I can’t live without her. Can you say the same?” I ask him.

He doesn’t answer me right now, and maybe he never will. One thing is clear from this talk, there was a lot more broken between my son and I than me falling in love with Wren. He might never forgive me, that’s true, but I know I’ll resent him if I give her up for his sake.

A giant weight falls off my shoulders, and I know what I need to do. I grab my phone and call Charlie. “He’s at the riverfront park drunk off his ass. I can’t help him, he’s too angry, and frankly so am I. Can you—“

“You don’t even need to finish that question. I’ll go handle him. I assume you’re going to go make things right with Wren?” Charlie asks me.

“I can’t live without her,” I admit. It feels good to say that out loud.

“Then go get her. Forget everything I said before. If you need her go,” he urges me.

I speed the whole way home, and rush inside the house.

“Wren? Are you here?” There’s no answer.

That anxious feeling is back, but I have no reason to think she didn’t just meet Bess somewhere. Even so, I go through every room of my house. One thing becomes apparent during my search, there’s no sign of her. Not just in the sense that she’s not here, but because all of her things are gone.

That sinking feeling intensifies as I make my way back to the kitchen. I’d walked right past a note stuck to the fridge with a magnet. My hands shake as I take it down and read her words. The last line seems to blur, but I realize that’s my eyes filling with tears I’d never admit to. So I read it again.

Know that I love you too, even though it changes nothing. You will always be Liam’s father, and he needs you more.

“That might be true, but I need you,” I say to the empty room. This can’t be the end. I refuse to accept that. Hoping to have a missed call from her I dig my phone out of my pocket.

The only calls on it are the ones I’ve made to Charlie.

I know she’s gone. It’s what I’ve been telling her she needed to do when Liam came home. That doesn’t stop me from starting to text her. Message after message and she doesn’t respond.

Sitting here waiting and praying she’ll reply is going to drive me nuts. There’s one person I know spoke to her before she left. For the second time I make my way back to Donovan’s Bar.

Bess stops me before I make it through the door. She puts her hands on my chest and pushes me out the door. Or I should say she applies pressure I interpret to be her trying to push me out the doorway. I help her out and move back outside, because I really just want to talk to her.

“I figured you’d show up here. Wren said she left you a letter.”

Deciding to cut right to the chase, I ask her, “Where did she go?”

She’s shaking her head before I even finish asking the question. “I don’t know. She just said she was heading out of town and she’d let Dolores and I know when she stops for the night. I’ll be honest, I didn’t ask her for exactly this reason. She thinks you’re going to be happy once she’s gone. I figured you’d pull your head out of your ass and realize you can’t live without her.”

“I wish you’d have told me,” I grumble under my breath.

Bess shoots me a look that practically screams she thinks I’m an idiot. “You knew. The tendency both of you have to lie to yourselves is mind boggling.”

“I need her back,” I tell Bess.

She nods. “I know. I do too.”

“How are we supposed to get her back if we don’t know where she went?”

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