Redemption(56)

Dan left me and raced to embrace Brett. I’d never met a man who cared as much about a friend as Dan did about Brett. In some ways, I think Dan was just as invested in their marriage as Brett was. Not in a creepy way, but in the way a man who loves two people would be—like a brother.

They were both engulfed by people with well wishes and congratulations. I stepped away from the swarm where I felt safer. I didn’t think anyone here would hurt me, but when people drink, they tend to be less cautious with their own bodies and stumble into other people. If I got knocked over, it wouldn’t be good for me or the baby I had in tow. I was uncomfortable in a room full of people I didn’t know. My safety nets were all otherwise engaged, and all I could do was hover until one of them came back to me, or an opening came for me to join them.

I hadn’t expected that opening to come in the form of glass shattering or Gray yelling. He was tall and easy to spot over the crowd, but even if I hadn’t been able to see him, everyone in the restaurant could hear him screaming at Annie, who he had caged against a wall. My eyes darted from him to Dan and then Brett. Annie was sobbing, but I didn’t know how to help her. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion but really was mere seconds. I cowered in a corner with my arms wrapped around my stomach wishing Dan were with me. The one time he’d managed to get more than an arm’s length away proved to be the one time I needed his protection.

“This wasn’t supposed to be like this. You were never his.” Gray’s words were slurred, but still intelligible. “You promised me you’d always love me, so why are you here with him?”

Just before Brett reached him, Gray pushed back off the wall and launched a beer bottle across the room nearly missing several people before it exploded on impact, glass and liquid cascading in the air.

The moment Gray grabbed her arm, and she winced in his clutches, I knew shit was about to get bad. “Answer me, Bird Dog. Tell me you lied. Say something.”

I didn’t know what to do. My instincts told me to protect myself and the baby at all cost, even if that meant not stepping up to help my friend. I shrunk back further from the people now trying to separate Gray from his victim, but I didn’t have anywhere to go, and I couldn’t get to Dan.

“Gray!” Annie’s husband attempted to get her ex-boyfriend away from her, but his father caught him.

Dan was on Gray faster than I could process what was taking place, and Annie’s face was buried in her hands. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed.

Brett wrestled away from his father. “Let me go, Dad. Now is not the time or place.” He jerked people aside, not caring who stood in the path to protecting his wife.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Gray? Two marriages weren’t enough for you to fuck up? Three years of her life wasn’t enough for you to torture her? When are you going to get it through your thick fucking skull, she’s my wife? She’s not on the market anymore. That’s my goddamn ring on her finger—forever!”

“Brett, son, you need to calm down. This isn’t helping.” His dad had continued to attempt to keep Brett from engaging in a physical altercation, but knowing the way Brett loved Annie, his attempts were in vain.

He ignored his dad. Brett never even took a breath, still pulling against the people restraining him. “She’s pregnant, man. We have two kids on the way. It’s over. She’s not coming back to you. You fucked up and lost the best thing you ever had.”

“I haven’t lost shit, man. She still loves me. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be crying.” Gray was beyond drunk. He was delusional. He clearly had no idea how fiercely Annie loved her husband. A twinge of sadness washed over me. Right or wrong, he believed he’d been betrayed and was devastated by the loss.

“You dumbass, she’s crying because you scared her, embarrassed her, and caused a fucking scene. She doesn’t love you. Newsflash, Gray—you never loved her. If you had, you would have let her go so she could be happy.”

My hands squeezed my belly as tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. In some way, I felt sorry for the man who’d lost his shit in front of everyone he knew. He didn’t have a stake on Annie, but he regretted everything he’d done, and there was nothing he could do to change any of it. For a split second, I identified with his pain, his anguish, the way he cried out in vain. He’d lost the thing he treasured most with careless actions. He experienced a death of sorts even if Annie hadn’t stopped breathing. His agony would never heal because he recognized what he’d done. He just saw it too late. I hadn’t seen it until my son was gone.

Annie slipped away from the men arguing in search of seclusion. She grabbed my arm when she got to my side and pulled me into the kitchen away from the fighting in the restaurant. Even the kitchen staff had stopped to gather and watch the scene unfold. Annie was hysterical, mumbling about loving a man who wasn’t good for her, her husband hurting him, the babies’ safety. Her anxiety couldn’t be healthy for her, but I was at a loss for what to say, still stunned myself by all that was going on.

Brett found the two of us huddled near the back door. I watched him pull his phone from his pocket and type out a text to Dan who appeared moments later.

“Any possibility of getting the two of them out of here?” Dan wanted to protect Annie and me and the innocent lives we were both carrying. I thought he might be overreacting a tad, but I wasn’t in a position to argue. Annie could barely breathe through the hiccupping sobs, and I hadn’t stopped crying even though mine were just tears.