Tenille and I met when we were sixteen. She was the chick who stood up for the underdog whenever given a chance, and I fell for that trait long before I fell for her beauty. I loved her fire and the fierce way she lived her life—always giving anyone who criticised her the middle finger.

She was fiery back then, and stubborn as hell. Convincing her to marry me at nineteen took over a year to do. She held strong views on marriage after watching her father control her mother. Tenille wanted to stay single; she didn’t see the need to declare our relationship with a piece of paper. What she didn’t count on was my determination to make her mine. I’d been fucking relieved, though, that talking her into having a baby was a lot easier. I’d always wanted lots of kids, and it turned out Tenille was down with that. Both of us came from shitty families; replacing them with our own was a dream we’d shared.

As I sat on my bike in the undercover car park of the shopping centre where she worked, the day after she slapped me and told me I was merely a sperm donor, I realised she hadn’t changed much. She exited the shopping centre after work, at the time Sully informed me she would, and began the short trek to her car. Right before she arrived at her old beat-up Corolla, a guy had almost reversed into her. An honest mistake because the 4WD next to his car would have blocked his vision. Still as fiery as ever though, Tenille let loose on him, giving him a piece of her mind.

I left my bike and approached them as the guy lost his cool.

He ripped his sunglasses off, demanding, “Fuck, are you this bitchy to everyone you meet or just us unlucky bastards?”

She placed her hand on her hip and raised her brows at him. “Just the assholes who don’t watch where they’re driving.”

His glare deepened. “Yeah well, lady, I told you I couldn’t see shit because of that 4WD in the way, so back the fuck off, okay.”

I moved next to Tenille. “This is done,” I directed at him before turning to her. Wrapping my hand around her forearm, I said, in a tone that asked for no arguments, “Let’s go.”

The guy nodded his agreement and turned to leave. Tenille, on the other hand, didn’t take heed of my tone. Her wild eyes met mine as she pulled her arm from my grip. “What the fuck, Aiden? What are you doing here? And since when do you get to tell me what to do?”

“Just helping you make a better decision, Tee.”

“I don’t need your help. I could have done with it fourteen years ago, but not now. And don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me that anymore,” she snapped.

Her anger was justified. I’d give her that. But letting her make the mistake of riling this guy up any further wasn’t something I was about to do. Hooking my arm around her waist, I lifted her and walked both of us away from him before she could continue her tirade. She fought me all the way, legs kicking and arms swinging, but I managed to keep hold of her until he was settled back in his car.

When I finally let her go, she straightened her clothes and shot me a filthy look. “Is that how you get women to do what you want these days? Just manhandle them however you please?” Her voice wobbled on the last few words she spat my way, letting me know a softening was coming.

I remembered clear as day how Tenille’s bursts of anger went. First, the passionate outburst that she didn’t put much thought into; then a moment of confusion when her brain kicked into gear; and then the softening as she came around and realised there might be more to the argument than she first saw.

Pushing a flyaway strand of hair out of her eyes, I said, “I don’t get women to do what I want these days, Tee.”

She stilled and her breathing slowed. Understanding dawned on her face, and her mouth fell open. Lastly, a frown wrinkled her forehead. “You’re not with anyone?”

I shook my head. “No.”

Confusion riddled her face. “But you have been, right? Like, I can’t imagine you not being with a woman since you left me.”

I scrubbed my hand over my face. This was not what I came here to discuss. “Out of everything we could be talking about right now, you want to discuss my sex life?”

The confusion on her face gave way to the shitty look she’d given me earlier. And the hand that landed on her hip told me I’d said the wrong fucking thing. Story of my life with Tenille. She blew hot and cold as easily as she breathed. “Do you know how it makes me feel knowing that you walked away from me and faked your own fucking death? Besides being upset and angry that you could do that to your wife and your child, it makes me, as a woman, feel like shit. Like I wasn’t good enough for you. So yeah, I want to discuss your sex life, because I’m kind of wondering whether you found better out there. Whether you found what you were looking for.” She worked herself up into such a state that her breaths came out unevenly as she tried to swallow her hurt. There was no hiding it, though—I’d wounded her horribly.

I stared at her, my mind splintering with a hundred different thoughts as I took in everything she said. It had never occurred to me that she would assume I left because she wasn’t good enough. That I was looking for some tits and ass somewhere else.

Fuck.

Reaching for her, I said, “Tee, me leaving had nothing to do with not being happy with you or looking to get laid elsewhere.”

She shrugged away from me. Wrapping her arms around her body, she said, “Why else would you leave? It doesn’t make any sense.”

I’d known this question would need to be answered when I decided to come back, but I still wasn’t sure how much information to share with her. The need to make her understand clashed with my commitment to keeping her and Charlie safe, leaving me with a tough decision. On top of that, I’d sheltered Tenille from the harsh truth of working for Shane Gibson all those years ago. As far as she knew, he was simply the father of our old schoolmate, and a nice guy who cared enough to give me a job when I’d needed one. He was also the man who looked out for her when her husband died and gave her second husband a job when he needed one. She didn’t know that he’d happily put a bullet in a man as naturally as he’d hold a newborn baby.

“I got tied up in some bad stuff at work. The cops started investigating, and Shane told me to get out of town to save us all going down. He was the one who organised the fire at our house—”

“Bullshit.” She cut me off. “Shane would never do that.” The fierce way she defended him was like a knife twisting in my chest. The motherfucker had clearly won her over while helping her pick up the pieces of her life.

“It’s not bullshit. You don’t know half the truth about Shane.”

“I know more than you think I do, Aiden. Remember, it’s been a long time since you left. A lot has happened in that time, and Shane has been a good friend to me.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. Something she said, or the way she said it, triggered a warning deep in my gut. “What did he tell you after I left?” I kept a firm grip on my temper while waiting for her answer, but I was dangerously close to losing it. Not at her, but at the situation that Gibson had put me in.

“About what?”

My shoulders tensed as I took a long, calming breath. It didn’t do much good, though. “About me, Tee. What the fuck did he tell you about me?”

She blinked a couple of times at my raised voice. “Don’t yell at me!” At my silence that smacked of anything but pleased, she added, “Nothing. He didn’t tell me anything about you. All I know is that he misses you. Still to this day, he goes on benders when he thinks about you and Brad too much.”

Stunned, I tried to process that. Brad was Shane’s son and had been my best mate in high school. He’d died in a freak accident just before Charlotte was born. I could believe that Gibson still mourned his son’s death, but what I could never believe was that he still cared for me. Not after what he’d done to me all those years ago.

“So you’re close to Gibson?” Sully’s information over the years painted a picture of Gibson helping her out, but I wasn’t sure just how close he’d become to my family. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d stayed near to keep an eye out for my return.

She didn’t answer me straight away, just kept her eyes firmly on mine while she stayed silent. Finally, she blinked and glanced at her feet briefly before looking back up at me and nodding. “Yeah, kind of.”

Something felt off here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but Tenille seemed to be acting strangely. She was hiding something from me. I guessed, though, that she had no reason to trust me these days. I’d have to rebuild that. However, in the meantime, I needed answers, and I also needed to make sure she understood a few things about the situation we were in.

“I’m telling you the truth, Tee, but I get it if you can’t trust me on that for now. All I ask is that you don’t tell Shane I’m back.”

“Stop calling me that!” She rummaged in her bag for a moment, pulled her keys out, and added, “I’m going home now. To my husband. I don’t want to see you again, and as far as keeping secrets from Shane Gibson, I’m not sure that’s even possible. He’s the kind of man who seems to know everything that’s going on.”

The displeasure written all over her face, coupled with the wariness flashing in her eyes and the bite in her words, hurt more than I ever thought it would. Where was the girl I’d loved more than anyone before or after her? I’d at least assumed she’d still be in there somewhere, giving me a sliver of an opportunity to show her the truth of the situation.

I reached for her, curling my hand tightly around her forearm. As our skin connected, a spark blazed through me, jolting long-forgotten memories to the surface. Or maybe they were buried in an effort to move on. Her eyes sliced to mine. I ignored the warning in them, in much the same way I’d done many times during our relationship. It was what Tenille and I were good at—ignoring signals and pushing our way in or out of situations. It didn’t always work in our favour, but that never stopped me from trying.

“Do you remember the day we were married? I promised you forever that day, and you cried as you promised me the same. It was the first time I ever saw you cry, and it made me understand how deep you were in with me, because getting you to that point had taken me some hard fucking work, and I hadn’t always been sure you really wanted to marry me.” I paused for a moment, searching her face to make sure she was still with me. She was. In fact, she held her breath while she took in everything I said. “I fucked up our forever, Tenille. I’m sorry for that. But I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back and watch any more of your life get screwed over. When I tell you that Gibson isn’t who he shows to the world, I need you to remember the trust you used to have in me and trust what I’m saying now, too. I need you to know that even though you and I don’t have a forever anymore, I never stopped loving you. And anything I’m trying to do now to help you is because of that. Dig deep, Tee, and think back to who I used to be before I left. For you, I’m still that person.”

I laid myself out in a way I hadn’t had to in over a decade, hoping like hell that she’d respond and give me an inch.

But she didn’t.

Reefing her arm out of my hold, she shook her head like a mad woman. “You took all my trust, Aiden, and threw it in my face. And it makes me question everything about you and who you were before you walked away. You knew everything about me and all the shit I’d been through, so I feel like if you really loved me like you say you did, you would never have left me alone to raise Charlotte and deal with shit on my own.” She drew a long breath as her fight faded. Staring at me with eyes that revealed her turmoil, she added, “Just leave again. We don’t need you here.”

No fucking way was I backing down. She’d just have to find a way to deal with me being around.

“No, you do need me here, Tenille. I’ve had a guy keeping an eye on you and Charlie since I left—”

She frowned as her fight flared up again. “What the fuck? Like a stalker watching over us?”

I kept my own fight in check. I’d forgotten just how argumentative my wife could be. Sometimes, it had been like going to war every day with her irrational thoughts and emotions that she flung at me. “No, like a private investigator who made sure you guys were okay. He checked in with me regularly, letting me know how you both were.”

“Jesus, Aiden, that’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“Clearly not, if the shit you and Craig are in at the moment is anything to go by.”

She straightened, pushing her shoulders back. I remembered this move—it was what she did when she tried to appear confident. What it told me, though, was that whatever came out of her mouth next would be a lie. “If you’re talking about the fights we’ve been having, they’re nothing. We love each other and are working things out.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m talking about that, along with your drinking, Charlie’s school grades going down, and the money missing from your bank account. Are you working all that out, too?” My last words came out a little too harshly, but fuck, this wasn’t shit to be avoided.

She stilled. “Your PI is a nosy bastard. None of those things are your business.”

“I would argue with that. They are all my business because you and Charlie are my business, and I plan to get to the bottom of every single one of them. With or without your help.”

Silence for a beat. And then—“You know what would have been nice? If you’d been this intent on getting to the bottom of shit fourteen years ago when you and I were having problems. When you tell me to think back to who you were then, and to know you’re that same man for me now, it doesn’t mean much, because back then all you focused on was working. You were hardly home, and when you were, you and I spent most of that time arguing.” She jabbed a finger against my chest. “So don’t come back here now and tell me you know all about my marriage to Craig and the shit my family is in, and that you’re going to fix it, when you couldn’t even fix your own shit years ago.” She turned to get in her car, leaving me staring after her with no comeback.

She was right. I hadn’t been there for her when she’d needed me. I’d been so fucking focused on providing for our family that I’d ended up neglecting them. And as the weeks and months passed, and the small wounds between us had turned to gaping ones that I didn’t even know how to begin to fix, it just became easier to fight with her or to retreat completely. At the end, we’d both been like casualties of war who stared at each other through vacant eyes, hurling words intended to hurt the other because that felt like the only way to allow the pain out.

The guilt I carried over that and over leaving them never eased up. It was like a hammer chipping away at me all the fucking time. I was certain that the only way I’d ever get rid of it was to make things right with Tenille again. We couldn’t go back, but we could sure as fuck go forward. But only if I could convince her to let me in.