Page 23 of Homewrecker | AllFreeNovel

“It means…” She shrugged. “Maybe stop building your identity around where you stand in relation to a man.”

I stared at my little sister. Daddy looked confused, and mama looked impressed.

Klair reached toward the table. “Can someone pass me some bacon?”

The moment broke, but her words followed me through our breakfast. They even followed me when I kissed my parents goodbye. My daddy hugged me longer than usual but didn’t apologize because men like my father had spent their whole lives believing love could sometimes stand in for accountability.

I sat in my car and I looked back at their house. The same house my father had always come home to.

For years, I’d thought that meant my mother had won. Then I grew up and realized it shouldn’t have been a competition in the first place.

And somehow, even when I knew better than most— I’d spent three years trying to win one.

Blair

BEFORE

“You got five minutes.”

Caleb looked at me from across the parking lot.

I was standing with my purse on my shoulder and my coat folded over my arm. Every part of my body wanted to move toward the car except my stupid fucking feet.

“Five,” I repeated.

He nodded. “Okay.”

I should’ve left anyway. There was nothing a married man could say after I’m married that should’ve mattered to me. There shouldn’t have been an explanation, a footnote, or an asterisk. Marriage was supposed to be one of those things that made everything else irrelevant. Married was married.

It meant taken, unavailable, and off limits. I knew that because I'd grown up knowing better.

But still, I stood there.

Caleb pointed towards a bench. He didn’t tell me to sit or calm down and that was the best thing he did in that moment. Men had a way of making women feel unreasonable for reacting to the unreasonable shit they did. But Caleb looked almost embarrassed and ashamed. Of course I fucking noticed.

“I should’ve told you before tonight,” he said.