Piercing silence once again filled the entryway as she waited. As my life with her flashed before my eyes. As I struggled to hold onto it when I knew I couldn’t.
The ice-cold fear gripping my heart told me as much.
Hunter stood, wiping at the blood on his face as he said, “It’s their story.”
Savannah’s eyes met mine again. Anguish churning in their depths and a plea for me to tell her this was all a mistake. That she’d heard wrong.
“Savannah—”
“Madison,” I said in warning, stopping whatever she’d been about to say.
She’d done enough. She’d said more than enough.
Savannah blinked quickly when her eyes glazed over with tears, refusing to let them fall. Her voice soft and cutting straight to my heart when she said, “I know what I think I heard, and I need to be wrong. Do not make me ask you, Beau.”
My lungs ached and begged for air as I watched her.
Studied her.
Took her in like I had every day for most of my life and prayed it wouldn’t be the last.
“I—” I lifted one of my arms, gesturing toward Madison before my hand fell roughly to my chest. To the excruciating pain there.
How do you tell your wife that you betrayed her, even unknowingly? How do you tell the woman you would rip out your heart for that you’ve hurt her in unforgivable ways? How do you destroy her?
“Did you have sex with Madison, yes or no?” she asked when I didn’t go on, holding my stare and trying to keep her voice firm.
“Savannah, you don’t—”
“Yes or no?” she demanded, the force of her anger slamming into me.
My hand gripped at my chest in a vain attempt to relieve the pain there as my gaze drifted toward Madison. Hatred and rage building in the split second I met her stare before I met Savannah’s eyes again.
The pain there. The knowing. The plea for this not to be true . . .
I would’ve died to take it all away.
“Beau,” she whispered. Begged.
“Yes.” The admission came out on a breath, but I hurried to add, “But it wasn’t—”
“Get out.”
No.
I stumbled as I pushed to standing, feeling like those two words had me bleeding out on the floor. “It wasn’t what you think.” She needed to know what happened. That I’d never knowingly betray her.
Savannah slashed a hand through the air as she took steps back that I matched. “Get out!”
“Savannah, you have to let me explain.”
“Get out of my fucking house,” she screamed as the tears finally fell, fast and heavy. The gut-wrenching combination bringing me to a halt.
She stared at me with a mixture of unfamiliarity and hatred, the look enough to bring me to my knees again if I’d been able to move.
I’d done that . . . I’d put that look on her face. Put that pain in her eyes.
Madison had done that.
Think I’d known ever since I came home to find Madison sitting in our kitchen a few weeks ago that this moment was coming. There’d been no stopping it, but I would’ve given the world to.
I would give literally anything to take Savannah’s pain away.
Her stare dragged away from me, her expression twisting with betrayal as she locked on Madison and watched her leave.
“Sava—”
“Get out of my sight,” she bit out, leveling me with an ice-cold glare.
I wavered for a moment before staggering back a step. Only finding the strength to move because it was Savannah and it was what she needed. And I would always do whatever she needed.
I cut a warning look at Hunter as I turned. At his hardened expression and the smeared blood. The red mark on his jaw and the bruising already beginning under his eyes.
The dark part inside me roared to life, craving more. Aching to sink my fist into his face again. Aching to make him—anyone—feel a fraction of the pain slowly tearing me apart as I forced myself out of my house and away from my family. To make someone pay for what—
Fucking Madison.
The reaction to seeing her was instant. The red haze. The way my body began trembling from the rage pounding through my veins.
I was across the porch and clearing the last step less than a second after her. Gripping her arm and yanking her back. Watching as the surprise and pain that flashed across her face quickly gave way to fear.
“Beau—”
“What’d you do?” I demanded, voice twisting with my own pain and hatred.
Hatred for her.
Me.
What we’d done.
Her lips parted but nothing left them. Her head shook faintly, quickly, as she stared up at me.
But I wanted to hear her say it. I wanted her to acknowledge what she’d done—what she’d ruined. Everything she’d demanded of me so long ago only to carelessly toss it away at the cost of my life and Savannah’s happiness.
“You came back to town and everything started falling apart,” I ground out. “If you just ripped my kids away from me? My wife?”
My heart dropped as the words I’d just said had a cold realization settling in.
“Beau,” Hunter said as he stepped up beside us, tone laced with warning. Fingers curling around my wrist and digging into the pressure point there in an attempt to get me to release Madison.
I tightened instinctively.
Not to hold on to Madison. I didn’t give a shit about her.
But because of that realization—that fear gripping my spine and stealing my breath. Because what just happened might not end in something as difficult as having to fight for Savannah’s heart and her trust again. It was possible I’d just lost her in a forever kind of way.
And losing Savannah?
That wasn’t something I’d survive. Ever.
“Get your fucking hand off her.” Hunter’s words were pure threat and shook me out of my internal torment.
I blinked.
Focused on the girl in front of me.
Her fear and sorrow. Her lies.
Why couldn’t you have stayed away, Madison?
“Go back to wherever the hell you were before you can do any more damage.” I released my hold on her and shrugged out of Hunter’s grasp as I turned and headed for my truck on the far side of the house.
With each step, my body begged me to go inside. To do whatever it took until Savannah knew the truth. To beg for forgiveness.
With each weak, pained beat of my heart, my blood seemed to call out to her.
My world, my world, my world.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
I’m so fucking sorry.
I stared at the house I’d grown up in as rain fell relentlessly around me. Wondering how long it had been since I’d stood in front of it.
Almost exactly ten years? Would’ve been longer if the people inside hadn’t destroyed my life. Taken everything I loved and ripped it away from me without a goddamn care in the world. Just to go on with their lives as if nothing had happened, if all the cars parked in front of the house were any indication.
I made my way across the rest of the drive and up the porch steps. My breaths coming a little rougher with each step. My fingers curling into fists and relaxing over and over again. My blood racing and heart pumping this unforgiving beat the closer I came to the door . . . just as it opened.