Page 5 of Right the Wrongs (Broken Vows #5)

Chapter Three

Wren - Past

I fidget in my seat. No matter which way I adjust myself, some part of my body feels cramped, smashed, or pinched. If that weren’t enough, our little girl is a future soccer phenom if she kicks a ball the way she kicks my ribs.

When I first saw my positive pregnancy test, I was so freaked out because in only nine months, my entire life would change.

There was so much to do, and my life was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

I had no home, no job, and I was alone. Worse, I was having my father-in-law’s baby.

Shit, in a matter of months, I went from being a mediocre wife to the guest star on one of those daytime shock-bait talk shows my mom used to watch.

Life did come at me fast, but it’s not as bleak as it seemed that day I sat on the beach near my aunt’s old condo in Florida.

I won’t say it was my lowest point, because as scared as I was, I also had the one thing I’d missed more than anything, a family.

My aunt Hattie moved to Florida when I was about nine years old, but we still saw her a few times a year.

That stopped after my parents died. She came and stayed with me for a while, but she was gone as soon as I was legally an adult.

I don’t know why she cut me out the way she did, but I knew no matter what, I’d have one person to love and be loved by.

Thankfully, the dark clouds passed and both literally and metaphorically.

Griffin showed up for me in all the ways I needed him to, and every day I spend with him, I am happier than the day before.

I’d say the past is behind me, but that’s the only downside to being with Griffin.

As long as I’m with him, Liam will always be in my life.

I didn’t fully appreciate what that meant when Griffin stormed into my life and forever changed it.

Because of him, I am loved more completely than I ever knew was possible.

With him, I have family, one I know will just keep growing.

He brings passion into my life. It’s like I was living my life in black and white, and Griffin dragged me into a world of technicolor.

I don’t know how I ever thought he was an unfeeling asshole when the opposite is true. Griffin feels so much sometimes that his walls protect him from the pain of loving someone else with every fiber of his soul.

He and I are the same in that way. When we give, it’s with everything we have, and when the recipient only takes, we are left a shell of the person we once were.

That’s how we came together, two empty people trying to give, even though the bucket was empty.

Yet, somehow, he found a little bit more when I had absolutely nothing left.

He’s it for me. I know that if I ever walked away from the life I’m building with him, it would always be a little bit duller than if I stayed. No love will ever be this big again.

So, why would I ever even think about leaving?

I don’t really, but sometimes a painful memory is shoved back in my face, and for a fraction of a second, I think about running away from the pain.

Doing that would cost me a life with Griffin, because the reminder will always be attached to him.

As long as I have Griffin, I have to put up with Liam.

I try to ignore that fact. Most of the time, it’s not that hard.

Just like during our marriage, Liam is damn good at disappearing.

I know better than anyone how bad it can be.

I keep those memories locked up deep. It isn’t just myself I’m protecting, because I don’t think Griffin could handle the unvarnished version of his son that I’ve been witness to either.

Especially since knowing won’t change a damn thing.

As long as Liam wants to live his life deep inside a bottle, that is what he’s going to do.

Nothing I ever did was enough to wake him up. No matter how hard I loved, how much I gave, or how much I gave up, Liam still turned to his true love, whiskey.

Come to think of it, he cheated on that relationship, too.

There was always beer, vodka, and once, a bottle of mouthwash, so he couldn’t even be faithful to a vice.

I suppose it isn’t whiskey specifically, but all alcohol that he’s enamored with.

It’s easier to accept that than to realize that I spent five years married to a man who was just as easily swayed by any other woman.

I’m not going to kid myself anymore. I could lie and think that his affair with my ex-best friend, Audrey, was out of some unfortunate connection that formed due to proximity.

It wouldn’t make it better, but maybe I would understand.

Since learning of his affair and the child that is out there somewhere, I’ve found out that he frequently hooked up with women he met while out drinking.

Funny how I’ve overheard so many inane rumors about the dumbest shit, but not once did anyone bother to tell me that my husband had become a one-man welcoming committee for college co-eds.

The fact that Pastor Greg eats fast food before he goes home because he loves his wife too much to tell her that her cooking sucks, sure.

Why not? But something as monumental as me throwing my life away trying to salvage something that may never have existed, nope, that they kept under wraps.

Dolores starts to squirm in her seat, and I can tell there’s something she wants to tell me, but also doesn’t want to tell me.

With most eighty-two-year-olds, I would assume it’s arthritis or something, but she is one of the most active people I know.

The only thing that holds her back is that her eyesight isn’t what it used to be.

That doesn’t stop her from seeing more than anyone else does, though.

She reaches across the table with a hand that is weathered, but still has so much strength, and takes my hand. There’s steel hidden under that paper-thin skin. She opens her mouth, and then my phone rings.

“Go on, dearie. That’s probably that hunk of yours,” she says and winks. I can tell she’s trying to hide her worry with humor.

She’s right, though; it is Griffin. I answer without thinking about where I am, and wince as soon as the words, “Hey, Daddy,” are out of my mouth.

Dolores laughs and waves me off. It makes me wonder what her husband was like. He must have been something to have won a pistol like her.

“Hey, Baby Bird,” Griffin’s voice rumbles on the other end of the phone. Maybe it’s my hormones creating a sense of paranoia, but there’s a weariness to his voice that wasn’t there this morning.

I wait patiently for him to tell me why he’s calling.

I know there’s a reason because if he just wanted to hear my voice, he would have come back no matter what errand he was running.

My husband isn’t a very talkative man. I didn’t really understand him the entire time I dated and was married to his son.

He was cold, stand-offish, and he said more with a grunt or growl than he ever did with words to me.

It wasn’t until I was drowning in him that I realized how deep he is. I can spend eternity sinking deeper with him and still find new things to discover. However, I am far enough below the surface now to know that there are different kinds of pauses when he speaks. This one is apprehensive.

He sighs, probably realizing he is actually going to have to give voice to the words he doesn’t want to say. “I overheard some things while I was in the pharmacy.”

“I hope you aren’t waiting for me to guess, because I heard a lot of things when we were there last week. I’m guessing this is about us, though, otherwise, you wouldn’t care. What did Liam do?”

Because, of course, it’s him. No one else has the ability to cut the two of us as painfully. The love I once had for Liam is gone, but the kind of hurt he inflicted has a longer shelf life.

Griffin grunts, which I’ve learned says a lot more than most people say with entire monologues. “Audrey dropped the baby off with him while he was blacked out from binge drinking. I found him lying in his own puke and piss while the baby had screamed herself hoarse.”

I blow out a breath. Alarms are going off in my head. “So, where are you right now?”

“The hospital. I didn’t know how long the baby had been there, sitting in a dirty diaper, screaming, with no one coming to take care of her. She could be dehydrated or have a serious diaper rash.”

There’s a long pause, and I am afraid of how much everything is going to change when he talks again.

Taking the baby to the hospital was absolutely the right thing to do, but it also means there’s a record of her abandonment and Liam’s inability to take care of her.

Audrey’s family isn’t exactly stable, which leaves only two options to take care of little Natalie.

Either we take her, or she’ll go into the care of the state.

I don’t know how to tell my husband that I can’t help him take care of his granddaughter because she’s a reminder that his son cheated on me. And, what kind of person does it make me that I’d let an infant go into the care of the state just so I don’t have to face that pain?

“What is going to happen now? Even if they would let Liam care for her, there’s no way he should be in charge of another human being.”

He clears his throat. “About that, I was approached by a social worker after Natalie was examined by the doctor. They said that the goal is to keep families together, and that in these instances they prefer to place a child with a blood relative if possible.”

That fear that has been bubbling up cements and sinks to the bottom of my stomach. This is an impossible position, and I’m not sure if there is a way to escape getting hurt.

“Wren, say something,” he demands.

Inhaling deeply, I pause, trying to wrangle my thoughts together. When I can’t figure out the way to move forward from here, I tell him as much. “I’m not sure what to say, Griff.”

“Tell me you’ll help me take care of the baby,” he begs.

“I can’t do that,” I say.

A few tears slip free and run down my face. I have to swallow around a lump in my throat. I strain to keep my voice level, but my throat hurts with the effort. I’m not used to holding back my feelings from Griffin, at least not anymore.

Back when he was my father-in-law, I hid a lot of my feelings from him.

Although I did let annoyance slip through freely.

That all ended when he dropped the wall he built between us and let me see the real him.

I never thought I would retreat behind mine, but right now, protecting myself feels vital.

“What are you saying, Baby Bird?”

I put my hand over my mouth to stifle the sob that is fighting its way out. “I’m not sure,” I whisper.

I slowly blow out a stream of air. “I need to go, and you need to focus on the baby.”

“Wren—”

“We’ll talk later,” I promise him, and hang up before he can argue with me.

I rub my belly. “Daddy and I will work it out. It’ll be fine. It has to be.”

There’s no doubt in my mind that Griff and I have an abundance of love for each other, but I also know that sometimes love isn’t enough to right everything that goes wrong between two people.