Written in the Scars(30)

Cord knows it too because I feel his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it. Reminding me he’s there and if I need help ending Pettis, he’s more than willing.

“Shut the f*ck up, Pettis, and get to the part where you say whatever it is you showed up here to say or f*cking beat it,” Cord says.

“Easy there, McCurry,” Pettis says, realizing just how precarious his situation might be. “I didn’t realize y’all didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” Jiggs asks. He flashes me a look, apologizing for asking because it is, in a way, feeding the troll. But he wants to know. We all do.

Pettis looks right at me, the smirk playing on his lips.

My blood runs cold, my breath hanging in the air, as I wait to see what bomb he’s going to drop on me. Because he is. He’s too geared up for it not to be.

“That Elin filed for divorce today.”

Pettis says the words so carefully, so clearly, then watches for the wound to open where his words cut me. He’s smart enough to take a step back as I process his declaration.

Although I don’t think it’s true, not after last night, I can’t help but feel the rug slip just a little beneath me. My world spins, my voice escaping me as the thought—what if it’s true?—hits me.

“She did not,” Jiggs says, laughing in disbelief. “Get the f*ck out of here before I kick your ass and don’t you ever, ever, go near my sister, you piece of f*cking shit. You hear me?”

Pettis shrugs, still watching me. “I’ll leave. Just wanted to give you my condolences. I offered her mine as she came out of Parker’s office today. I might go by there tonight and see if she needs a friend.”

Cord shoves me backward as he charges forward. Pettis scrambles to his car and locks the door, Cord and Jiggs on his heels. He starts the engine, his eyes now wide for a completely different reason.

“I will personally see that you feel pain for every cocksucking thing you’ve ever done!” Cord steps back as Pettis slams the car into drive and slides down the driveway and up the access road.

I feel nothing—no rage, no anger, no fear.

My friends are talking around me. I hear a basketball being tossed into the back of a truck. I sense movement, feel someone bump me, but I don’t move. I’m afraid to snap out of this haze because I’ll have to process everything, consider that there might be some truth to his accusations.

But it can’t be true.

She wouldn’t. Not after last night.

My shoulder is hit again and I look up and into Jiggs’ face.

“Did she?” I ask point blank.

“Ty, if she did, I didn’t know.” He scrubs his hands down his face. “Fuck, man. I’m sorry either way. If she didn’t, then Pettis just signed his death warrant. But if she did . . .”

My wedding ring catches the late afternoon sunlight. It shines in the light, reminding me of the day Elin placed it on my finger.

“I’ll love you, for better or worse, ’til death do us part.”

The chill that arrived with Pettis leaves me with his departure. Instead, a red-hot flame starts in my gut and burns every fiber of my body as it rolls through me. There’s no way this is happening.

“What are you gonna do?” Jiggs asks.

Considering his question for a half a second, I turn my back to him as I storm to my truck.

“Ty?” Cord asks, leaning against the side of his truck.

“Hey, Cord,” I shout, swinging my door open. “If I get hemmed up tonight, you’ll bail me out, right? Because if I see Elin and this isn’t true, I’m gonna f*cking kill him.”

“I got you.”





ELIN


I hold it together through the appointment, to my car, and on the drive home.

Radio off, ignoring the envelope next to me that lays as heavily on my mind as it does the leather passenger seat, I keep my vision trained on the road ahead. The bright white envelope is full of papers that, if I fill them out, would officially end my marriage.

There should be relief in that, in knowing my options. But there’s no relief in this. Really, how could there be? It’s not a choice I want to make, but one that feels like the only possibility available.

I don’t trust him. My respect level is barely hanging on. There’s no loyalty between us, not anymore. How can he even understand loyalty if he would leave me and the boys like he did?

If I were dating him, I’d end things. Granted, I wouldn’t’ve loved him like I do if that were the case. But when you’re in a hole this deep, is love a big enough ladder to climb out? It certainly doesn’t seem so.

Piloting the car onto my street, I focus on staying between the lines through the blur. Pressing harder on the accelerator, I rush to make the last few miles before the tears start. The harder I try to focus and block them out, the stronger the dampness gets in the corner of my eyes. The bridge of my nose is swollen with that tickle you get right before you start to topple over the edge.

Everything is spinning. I’m starting to lose control. Emotions take over, writhing inside me, and that panics me even more.

My breaths turn into quick hiccups as I glance into the rearview mirror and see a familiar truck. It’s passing a car a few hundred feet back and I watch it fly into my lane and hover a few car lengths behind me.