Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
I stiffen, fighting against a storm of impatience. I won’t sleep until I learn what happened and what these two men mean to my wife.
Bruises darken Frankie’s eyes as she shares a wordless conversation with Leo and Kody. They rally around her like some sort of tight-knit trio.
Like they’re in a relationship.
I’m so twisted up I want to roar and break shit until I can’t feel a fucking thing. But my composure holds, a fragile veneer over the chaos and violence thrashing inside me.
Standing quietly on the sidelines, I assume the role of stoic businessman, estranged husband, and brother betrayed.
Beneath it all, I’m just a man fighting to right the wrongs of the past and protect the woman I love from the fallout of choices made by me and my fucked-up family.
“If you don’t mind…” Frankie pushes back her shoulders and looks at Melanie. “None of us will sleep until we have this conversation. We want to do it now.”
“I understand.” Melanie removes a laptop from her satchel. “I’ll sit over there, record the conversation, take some notes, and only intervene when needed.”
Frankie thanks her. Melanie quietly shuts the door, sealing us in a tomb of tension and expectation, and finds her seat near the entrance.
Kody navigates the room with a pronounced limp and his IV pole. Pausing at Frankie’s bed, he adjusts her pillows and ensures her comfort, his movements gentle and deliberate, before reclining on his own bed.
Impossible to miss the bond between them.
Between all three of them.
In their eye contact, in every subtle interaction, there’s a connection that transcends sexual intimacy.
She looks at them in a way that she’s never looked at me.
It makes my pulse race out of control. My muscles tense. My hands shake. A shiver crashes down my spine as shadows rise around me.
I know what this is.
It’s the chill that creeps in before the storm, the haunting whisper in the void, the dark ink seeping through the veins of existence. It’s pure, unchained, ravenous, soul-shaking fear, ravaging the edges of my sanity.
Frankie is here, in this room.
But she’s out of reach.
She’s lost to me.
Because she’s with them.
I remain on my feet, spinning in a black hole of violence and misery, unbeknown to them, in the settling calm of the room.
“You should sit for this, Monty.” Frankie’s voice, though soft, cuts through my breakdown.
I don’t move, don’t speak.
“Fine. Before we begin…” She directs her gaze to Kody, then Leo, before returning to me. “I want to declare a moratorium on physical altercations. I’m too fucking tired to deal with temper tantrums. Stay in your beds. Keep your hands to yourselves. And Monty…” Her gaze pulls me in. “You really should sit.”
The pallor of her skin and the way she braces herself against the pillows Kody just arranged ignite profound concern in me. She’s a striking portrait of strength carved from the trials of survival, but she’s visibly drained.
The Frankie I know always pushed herself too hard, too far. It’s a trait I both admire and fear for, knowing the price she’s paying with her health. The fact that she needs to lay down such ground rules, to forestall violence in what should be a place of healing, highlights the depth of her fatigue.
My chest aches for her, reaffirming my resolve to protect her, to alleviate her burdens in any way I can. “Let’s postpone this.”
“Nope. We’re all adults. Despite how hard this conversation will be for us, I know we can have a peaceful, honest discussion.”
The instinct to overrule her and demand she rest hardens my stomach. But for now, I keep my mouth shut.
“Are we still married?” She lifts her chin.
The question snaps my head back. “Yes.”
“You didn’t file for a divorce?”
“Fuck, no. I told you, Frankie. I never stopped looking for you.”
“How many women have there been since I was taken?”
I freeze, rooted to the floor, eyes locked on hers.
This is not how I intended for this to play out. Not in a room full of strangers with my back against the wall. I knew I would tell her today, but Jesus Christ, not right out of the fucking gate.
My defenses bristle. Everything clenches. I pace to the window, searching for the right words, but there are no right words. Nothing will soften this.
I turn back to her, finding her beautiful, pained eyes. “I thought you left me.”
“How many women?” she asks again.
“One.”
“Her name?”
“Aubrey.”
She blinks, expressionless, not a sliver of surprise in her body language.
She knew.
How did she fucking know?
“How long has the infidelity been going on?” She sits taller. “Were you ever faithful to me?”
The accusation slams into my chest and knocks the wind out of me.
Infidelity.
The term feels misplaced as she levels it against me, her eyes alight with conviction.
“It was one time.” I draw a steadying breath. “One time too many. I regretted it instantly, but I won’t make excuses for it.”