A Redo (Sterling Shore 6)

“I can live with what people say about me, but I don’t want Angel exposed to that, Bella. Wren and I can’t work. People will always have something to say now. They’ll provoke him. He’ll end up in a fight, and it could ruin him the way it has ruined me. I won’t be the reason for his destruction. I love him. And you always do what’s best for the person you love, right?”

She groans while dropping her head. “This is so fucked up. But I think the right thing to do is give him a chance to fix this. He should have done an interview immediately to squash this possibility instead of trying to find a way to keep his image intact.”

My skin prickles upon hearing that. “What?”

Her eyes widen fractionally, but she looks about as defeated as I feel.

“I talked to Brin earlier, and she said Wren was trying to find a way to deal with the reporters without giving them all the sordid details because of how it might impact his business. He has an image to uphold, and he has a lot of people working for him that depend on that image. She believes that it wouldn’t have affected his business, Rye seems to think otherwise. But in the end, he should have gotten off his ass and done something sooner. That said, it doesn’t mean you need to give up what the two of you have. It’s rare, Allie. Very rare. You know that.”

He never told me they were hounding him that bad. He could have at least warned me this morning before running out and leaving me to fend for myself against the wolves.

“He tried calling, you know? Me, I mean. Brin said he’s called her a hundred times to see if I’ve spoken to her or if you have. He’s been to the house. He’s been to the hospital—which he caused a major scene at, by the way. I don’t have the details, but from what I hear, it was pretty bad. Corbin’s father owns that place, and I heard he was calling him as he was leaving. It’s bad, Allie. I think he needs to talk to you.”

I groan while rubbing my hands over my face.

“He’ll find out Angel’s at his mom’s soon enough,” she goes on. “And he’ll start stalking her house to find you if you don’t call him. Would you rather that happen?”

I sniffle, wiping away my tears. Stupid damn tears.

“No,” I admit. “Fine. I’ll call him. I do want to be with him, but everything is chaos right now. But maybe we can figure it out… unless…”

My voice trails off, and Bella narrows her eyes at me. “Unless what?”

“Do you think he’s really still in love with Erica? They do have a lot of history. I know he told me he never loved her, but that can’t be true, can it?”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Allie. Wren doesn’t love her. He’s not staying with you out of fear of losing his daughter. That entire article was false. They were divorced before he knew about you. Seven months? It hasn’t been seven damn months; you haven’t even been in town that long. They were divorced before you even ran into him. It’s utter and complete bullshit mixed with enough truth to make it believable.”

Doubt nags me—doubt that wasn’t there before. Wren and Erica had something in order for him to stay that long. Years—that’s a long time. Marriage, that’s a big deal. What if I’m keeping him from what he wants out of obligation?

And was his image more important than me? He really should have talked to the reporters if I was more important.

I knew it was too good to be true. I’ve never been one to hope for anything the way I hoped for Wren. I should have known better. The first thing you learn when you’re put into the foster system—don’t get attached to anything you don’t know for sure that you can keep. People always come and go.

Chapter 32

WREN

“Calm the fuck down!” Tag barks, dodging the chair that breaks and scatters into pieces after I throw it.

“She’s running! I can’t fucking blame her. This is my fault. I thought I could have the shit taken down before she went into work. I had no idea how many social networks it had bled into. They fired her, Tag. She hit a woman. Allie doesn’t do that. That means she was attacked no matter what those sons of bitches say. And they fired Bella. She has nothing keeping her here.”

My chest heaves, and I’m standing in a room full of destruction made by my hands.

“She has you. And she has Angel. Angel won’t want to leave.”

My chest caves in on itself. What if I lose them both? Angel will hate me if her mother is hurt. She’s probably already hating me.