my side and in my bed. I also have only tonight to formulate a true plan to get Susan to stay in her own fucking lane.
Luckily, Hansen has been working on that front for a while. I have to have something that will shut her up and make her fade away. It doesn’t matter to me if she wants to go to the same events as me. Hell, she could come to Christmas dinner for all I care. I just want her to stop starting shit. To act her goddamn age.
“Okay,” Tennessee rasps.
We eat dinner in silence, though I wouldn’t call it comfortable silence. I can only guess that she’s thinking about leaving me, and I am only thinking about ways to hurt Susan and imagining in gruesome detail what I’d like to do to her right about now.
Once we’re home, I retreat into my office while Tennessee gets Holden ready for bed. It’s been a long fucking day and although he wasn’t part of it, he still spent the entire day in childcare and I’ve seen how hard those kids play.
Picking up my phone, I clear my throat as I touch Hansen’s name on my contact list.
“Astor, I thought you would be celebrating.” He chuckles as his greeting.
I grunt. “I’m going to try, but I have to ask. What do you have to help me out with her? With this situation?”
“He’s gone. Took the bus home. Apparently, Susan didn’t like the way he called her out. She didn’t go through with giving him anything other than a one-way bus ticket out of town.”
“Good,” I murmur. “But what about her, personally? I need something that’s going to make her leave me, and Tennessee, alone for good.”
“Is there such a thing?” he asks.
“Probably not, but you have to have something I can at least attempt to use.”
There is a moment of silence and I wait, knowing that he’s struggling with telling me something. I’m sure that whatever it is, it’s ugly, because that’s what Susan is on the inside. He clears his throat, then he tells me the truth.
I never suspected any of it. Not a single fucking part of it. Ending the call, I don’t even tell him goodbye when the story is finished. He emails the file to me before I hang up on him. But I’m sitting and staring at the computer, the new email highlighted with bold text in my inbox.
This makes me see my entire marriage differently. Makes me see the woman who had my children different. Makes me question everything. Lifting my hand, I run my palm down my face and let out an exhale.
Fuck.
TENNESSEE
When Landry appears in the bedroom doorway, I watch as he leans against the frame, his eyelids lowered as he watches me. I tucked Holden into bed a few hours ago and even checked on him already to ensure that he was indeed fast asleep in dreamland.
I’ve been expecting Landry any moment, what I didn’t anticipate was that he would walk up here hours later and be drunk. He is just that, too, drunk. I watch him for a moment in silence, he stares back at me through lowered lids, but he doesn’t speak either.
Slowly, he sways toward me and I watch, waiting to see what he’s going to do or say next. Then he sinks down next to me with a groan.
“Landry?” I finally ask.
His head is tipped down as he looks at the bed, then he slowly lifts it and his eyes find mine. Something is wrong, but I can’t tell. I don’t know if it’s about our conversation from earlier, or something different.
“I never knew her,” he rasps.
“What on earth is going on?”
He licks his lips, then clears his throat. He doesn’t sound sad or upset really, rather he just sounds confused. “I learned something tonight,” he begins. “I had Hansen look deeper into Susan, things that I never quite asked him to do before.”
“Tell me, what did you have him do before?” I ask as I sit up straighter and reach for his hand.
He turns his palm over slowly, looking down at his movements as I slip my hand in his. His hand closes around mine and his fingers flex. He lifts his gaze to meet my own, his eyes focusing on mine, or attempting to.
“Just to see if she was cheating on me when I expected it. Then every time I would hear a rumor, or she would act off, I would send him again to