Page 1 of Love ’em or Liam

chapter

one

Wren

It’s moments like these when I wish my husband had been better. A better husband. A better father. Hell, just a better human.

But he hadn’t been, and it made playing the part of the grieving widow really damn hard sometimes.

Frankly, it was just exhausting—all the pretending. Pretending I’d ever loved him. Pretending he’d ever loved me. Pretending he hadn’t died with too much OxyContin in his body at a seedy hotel with his latest flavor of the week. Her name had been Sheila.

I suppose I should thank my in-laws for their ability to clean up their son’s messes, no matter how big or scandalous. At least most of the good people of Big Wood, Tennessee, didn’t know the depth of my embarrassment and shame. Or how far the golden boy had fallen.

Colt and I were a mistake from the moment we ended up in bed together. We’d been using each other as a substitute for the man who’d left us both. Our mutual best friend, Liam Gregory. Liam had been the glue that held together our little trio of friends, right up until he’d joined the army right after high school graduation.

I’d missed him so damn much. We both had.

One night, Colt and I were reminiscing, and one thing led to another, which led to naked times. We both agreed the next day that it had been a mistake and we would just move on. But then I’d found out I was pregnant.

His parents had demanded that we marry immediately. I’d been lonely and scared of raising a baby on my own, so I’d agreed. Colt had been great that first year, during my pregnancy, and shortly after Keller was born. Then everything had changed.

Colt had wrecked his motorcycle. The chronic pain changed his personality. Then the addiction to the pain killers started. In truth, I still don’t know if the affairs happened before or after that. I do know that the last three years of our marriage—before Colt OD’d—we hadn’t shared a bed. Once I knew he was sleeping with other women, I was done.

So yeah, we had a decent marriage for a year and then everything went to shit. There was no getting a divorce, though, because his parents were further into our marriage than Colt ever was. We lived in a house they bought and furnished. They had their fingers in every aspect of my life.

“You don’t need to work. Good mothers stay home with their children, even after they start school.”

“If you divorce Colten, you will end up on the wrong side of everything, Wren. You don’t want that kind of damage done to your reputation.”

Now those meddling jerks are after my son. I sought some legal advice from a lawyer who lives in a different state. There was no way I could ask someone in Big Wood or even Knoxville because if the Bishops got wind of me looking to fight them, they’d make everything harder on me. As it is, they likely think I’m just going to hand Keller over to them.

I’ve been playing nice with them for the last eight years and I am done. They will not get their hands on my son. Which is why I’m currently holding my phone and trying to decide if this is a phone call question or if I need to video chat with the one man I trust to help me figure this situation out. Liam Gregory.

My phone pings with an incoming message and I nearly drop the device. But it’s a text from my sister.

WINNIE: Have you called him yet?

ME: No.

WINNIE: Want me to?

ME: *snort. I don’t think that’s how this should go. But thanks for the offer.

WINNIE: Just rip off the bandage, Wren. This is Liam we’re talking about. He would do anything for you.

ME: Maybe once upon a time he would. But I haven’t seen him in years.

ME: And this is a huge favor that will completely upend his life.

WINNIE: Do you have other options?

ME: None that I can think of. Unless I want to change our names and move out of the country. But with their financial resources, they’d find me eventually.

WINNIE: Assholes.

ME: Yep.

ME: So how goes the job hunting?