Wren here. I unlocked my husband's front door the next morning with one thing on my mind, and it was not him.
My laptop, my sketches, my own damn life. Then out the door for good. That was the plan.
My sister and my mother were already drinking at eleven in the morning.
Brynn: Look who came crawling back. I told you she would.
Corinne: Pour me another, sweetheart. This is going to be fun.
I kept walking. The less I said in this house, the less they had to throw back at me.
Brynn: Everyone at the gala watched you run out like a dog with its tail between its legs.
Wren: You wore a dead woman's necklace and called it a gift. That was the only embarrassing thing in that room.
Brynn's face went white. Then it went red.
Her fingers curled around the stem of her glass, and she threw the whole thing at me.
Red wine hit my dress like a bloody handprint.
Then she did what she has done my whole life. She turned her own meanness around and aimed it right at me.
Brynn: She humiliated me! Mother, you saw it. She called me a liar to my face.
Brynn: She has always hated me. I can't even wear a necklace without her making me feel like dirt.
Corinne: You jealous little bitch. Look at your sister crying.
Corinne: She has been sick over your scene at the gala, and now you come into this house to twist the knife.
I stood there with wine running down my dress, and for one second I could not find my voice at all.
Then I heard his shoes on the marble, and my body went cold and hot at the same time.
Cade: What the hell is going on in here?
Brynn: Cade, she knocked the glass out of my hand and called me a liar. Look at me. Look what she does to me.
Cade: Is that true, Wren?
Corinne: Look at your wife standing there like a wet rat. Of course it's true.
Cade: Apologize. Now.
Wren: No.
Wren: She poured it on me on purpose. She is lying, and you know she is lying.
Brynn: See? She does this. She always does this.
His hand closed around my arm above the elbow, right over the marks he had left the night before.
Cade: Apologize to your sister, or I call in your father's debts tonight. He loses his house by Friday.
Cade: And I'll have Nia's shop audited until there is nothing left of it but a sign.
I believed him. That was the worst part. I always believed him.
Brynn: Make her say it, Cade. Make her get on her knees.
Corinne: She should be on her knees for what she has done to this family.
I looked at my husband, my sister and my mother, and something in me went quiet and hard.
Wren: No.
Wren: You want a wife who says sorry for breathing. Find somebody else.
Brynn: You are lucky I only slapped you last night, you ugly cow.
Brynn: Try me again and I'll knock your teeth down your throat. Everyone will say you fell.
She said it with a sweet little smile, and I believed that too.
I turned my back on all three of them and walked toward the hallway.
I did not run. I made myself walk slow, with wine dripping off my hem and my heart pounding in my ears.
Cade caught me before I reached the door, and his hand pushed me back into the wall.
My head tapped the paneling, the split in my lip tore open again, and blood filled my mouth.
Cade: You don't walk away from me. Not in front of them.
Then his mouth slammed down on mine, rough and furious, and my traitor body kissed him right back.
Cade: You're already wet for me. Your own husband says your name like a curse and you still get wet for him.
He jammed his knee between my thighs, and through his suit I felt his cock, hard and hot against my hip.
His fingers slipped up under my dress and found my pussy, and I made a noise I wished I could swallow back down.
Cade: Say you want me. Say it and I'll forget this morning ever happened.
I bit down on his lip instead. Hard. I bit until I tasted copper.
Cade: You little bitch.
Wren: That is the closest to an apology you will ever get from me.
He touched his mouth and stared at the red on his fingers like he had never seen his own blood before.
I walked out with wine on my dress and his blood on my teeth, and my hands did not shake.
Tomorrow I would come back for the rest of my things. Not for him. Never for him again.