AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But not me. She flinched, his message loud and clear. “You also remember Bently, Mikel, Andre, or Link. Why not hang out with them?”
“What do you have against Stewart?” His voice rose louder. “Were you the reason I abandoned my friendship with him?”
She shook her head, tears welling. “No. I mean, you decided it on your own. I told you he made me uncomfortable, but I never . . . You made that choice, Finn. You outgrew the friendship. He stayed partying, always trying to get you to see other women. He never grew up. He still hasn’t. He’s reckless. And I’ve always had a bad feeling about the guy.”
“So, you don’t trust me. That’s what this is about.”
“I trusted the man I married with my life. My Finn would never let a man speak like that to me. My Finn loved me.” Her voice cracked as the tears fell. “But I don’t know who you are anymore!”
“Well, that makes two of us, then.”
She sucked in a breath and backed up as if his words had been a physical blow.
He stepped forward, his hand on the wall. “I’ll be out late. Don’t wait up.”
He shut the door. The lock clicked into place in more ways than one.
Charli clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to contain the sobs. The world as she knew it crumbled around her. Her chest splintered as a thousand tiny arrows pierced the most vulnerable pieces of her. She took one shaky step after another to the entryway, slipping on a pair of shoes and grabbing her jacket before snatching up her keys. She ran to her car and started the engine. Navigating out of the driveway through blurry eyes, she just needed to get out of there. Her heart couldn’t take anymore.
Somehow, she made it to her in-laws’. The only family she had left, except for her friends. Charli wiped her face with her sleeve before climbing out of the car and marching up the steps. She took a ragged breath before knocking.
Claire opened the door, her bright smile disappearing the moment their eyes connected. “What’s wrong?” Claire searched over Charli’s shoulder, presumably for Finn.
She stepped forward and fell into the woman who’d become her mother’s arms. Claire held her and guided her inside, shutting the door behind them.
Zeke walked into the room. “There’s the birthday girl—Charli? What happened? Where’s Finn?”
“He—he’s out with Stewart.”
“Stewart?” Zeke scratched his head. “That deadbeat?”
Charli nodded. “We had a fight and he . . . he just . . . I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll call him,” Zeke said, his tone serious as he left the room.
“This just doesn’t sound like Finn,” Claire said, pulling herself away to fill up a glass with water and set it in front of Charli.
“He’s not . . . he’s not himself. His moods are all over the place. He goes days barely speaking to me. We had a good time a few nights ago. We went to dinner and had a great conversation. I thought we were getting somewhere. And then he just shut me out again.”
“The doctor said these things are common for Finn’s condition. Has he remembered anything?” Claire asked.
Charli shook her head, unable to give voice to her hopelessness.
Claire took her hand, squeezing gently. “Finn is a good boy. He won’t do anything reckless.”
The old Finn wouldn’t. Even the seventeen-year-old Finn wouldn’t. But this new angry version of him was someone else entirely. And now Charli had no idea what her husband was capable of.
13
Finn
Sexy, seductive music blared from the speakers as bodies pulsed to the beat. The air was hot and thick as Finn followed Stewart through the crowd at The Pearl Necklace. They’d ridden their bikes for a couple of hours up and down the coast, stopping for dinner along the way. Stewart had said he had just the surprise to finish their night off together. But this wasn’t what he’d expected. The scents of different colognes and perfumes mingled together making it hard to breathe. Red light cast a warm hue over the dark room. Women danced on stages, topless as they gyrated behind the bars of a cube. One in the center used a pole, spinning her body and winding around like a snake as lecherous eyes full of lust watched her.
Finn’s gaze widened as he took in the room. He’d never been to a place like this—at least that he could remember. His cheeks heated as he caught glimpses of the women dancing. His body was aroused and full of discomfort at the same time. His lead feet stayed behind his friend as Stewart pointed towards a table in the back corner marked reserved.
Stewart sat in one side of the booth, and Finn took the other.
“Is it okay if we sit here?” Finn yelled across the table.
