Chapter 22: The Tense Ride Home
Logan’s POV
The drive home from Northwestern Memorial was suffocating and tense as I didn’t know what to think or do, this was a scenario that I never expected to have. Katherine sat in the passenger seat, occasionally glancing at me with concern but wisely saying nothing, knowing that I wasn’t in the right mood for any conversation. Nick was in the back, unusually quiet, staring out the window with that confused, hurt expression he’d worn since Sedona had pulled her hand away from his.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles going white. The image of that man-Cameron, she’d called him-with his arm around Sedona, the way he’d stepped between us so protectively, the threat in his eyes when he’d looked at me. It played on repeat in my mind, making my blood boil. Who does he think he was, posturing around my wife, treating her like she was everything to him. And the implications made his head spin.
Two days. She’d been with him for two days. And nights, she’d said. She’d made a point of saying nights. She didn’t go back home, she shared a room with him, a bed even. God only knows what happened between them on that night, was he warming her bed?
The jealousy was irrational, I knew that. Sedona wasn’t the type to… but then again, I’d thought she wasn’t the type to abandon her family either. Apparently, I didn’t know my wife as well as I’d believed.
“Logan?” Katherine’s soft voice broke through my thoughts. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t seem fine. Your jaw has been clenched since we left the hospital.”
I forced myself to relax slightly, though my hands remained tight on the wheel, a part of me afraid I would start hitting things if I let go.. “I just can’t believe her. Did you see what she did? What she said? In front of Nick?”
Katherine shifted in her seat, her expression sympathetic. “It was… unexpected.”
“Unexpected? It was outrageous. It was calculated and cruel and-” I had to stop, had to take a breath before I said something I’d regret in front of Nick. After taking in deep gulps of air, I continued speaking.
“She deliberately tried to provoke me. To hurt me. And she used Nick to do it.”
“She did seem very angry,” Katherine said carefully. “Maybe she’s just going through something right now. People do strange things when they’re upset.”
“Upset about what? I took our son to Disneyland. That’s not a crime. That’s being a good father, having time off with their son, I am a very busy person, me being invested in our son is something she should be happy with. And she responds by running off with some random guy and then throwing it in my face?”
“He didn’t seem random, Katherine observed quietly. “The way he was with her… he seemed to know her quite well.”
The observation made my stomach twist with nausea as I did not want to look deeply into what she was
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The tense BiHome
implying. “What are you saying?”
+25 Points
“Nothing. Just that… well, Sedona has always been a bit mysterious about her past, hasn’t she? She told
you she was an orphan, that she had no family. But that man-Cameron-he seemed very protective of her. What if they were lovers that got reunited. Or maybe he is like her family or something like that”
I hadn’t thought about that. Sedona had always been vague about her life before Chicago, before me. I’d assumed it was because there was nothing to tell, that she’d come from nothing and was embarrassed about it. But what if there was more to the story?
What if she’d been lying to me all along?
“She said she was an orphan,” I muttered, more to myself than to Katherine. “She said she had nobody.”
“Maybe she does now,” Katherine suggested gently shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe she found someone. Or maybe… maybe she wasn’t being entirely truthful about her past”
The possibility sat heavy in my chest. Three years of marriage, and I realized I knew almost nothing about Sedona’s life before me. I’d never pressed, never asked detailed questions, too happy about the convenient narrative that she gave me, that she was alone in the world and grateful for what I’d given her.
“Dad?” Nick’s voice was small from the backseat. “Is Mom really leaving us?”
I glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing my son’s worried face. “No, buddy. She’s just being difficult right now. She’ll come back.”
“But she said not to call her Mom. She said she was done.” He pointed out, wiping the tears from his eyes as I replied gently.
“She’s upset and saying things she doesn’t mean. Adults do that sometimes when they’re having big feelings.”
“Aunt Katherine doesn’t do that,” Nick said. “Aunt Katherine is always nice.”
Catherine turned in her seat, giving Nick a warm smile. “That’s sweet of you to say, Nick. But your mom loves you very much. She’s just confused right now.”
“Why is she confused? I am her son, she is my mum, there is nothing to be confused about that.”
How did I explain this to a six-year-old? How did I explain that his mother was having some kind of breakdown, possibly cheating on me, definitely trying to hurt me in the most calculated and cruel way possible? Just to prove a point that didn’t even need proving because I wasn’t sleeping with Katherine.
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