This is her second strike in relationships this year. Here’s hoping she doesn’t have a third.
“Tenley, what is it?”
Blood pounds in my ears as I look at Warner. The first time I met him, I knew I’d met someone good. A person with a warm, kind light glowing from the depths.
He doesn’t deserve this.
He takes the phone I’m holding out for him and quickly reads the article. His eyes tighten and he swallows hard.
“Fucking shit.” The words are low, dangerous, forced out through his teeth. He tosses the bag of dog treats onto the floor next to Libby and strides out the door.
I go after him. “Where are you going?”
“To my kids. To Anna. This is going to kill her.” He shakes his head as he stomps to his truck, one hand raking over the back of his neck. He stops in his open door and looks back at me. “The article got it wrong. They got everything wrong.”
Tears sting my eyes. “I know.”
Warner gets in his truck and turns it around. He’s gone in seconds.
When I’m in the cabin and the door is shut, I slink to the ground and cry. Libby licks my tears.
28
Warner
Anna’s confused.I would be too if I opened my front door and found her standing there.
I don’t know what she’s going to do when she finds out. It’s her secret,oursecret. Me and Anna. Brock and Susan. Created and kept at Anna’s request. She didn’t want people in town knowing.
She was mortified at what she’d done, at how swiftly and easily the mental illness had taken hold. At the time I said all the right things, but they fell on deaf ears. I used big words, but they gained no purchase.
Normalize.
Destigmatize.
Make mental health a part of the conversation. Remove the hushed tones. Whole-body health. I researched until my eyes dried and I could read no more. I said it all, but Anna couldn’t hear me. She wasn’t only in the throes of her clinical depression, she was fucking drowning in it.
She’s better now. She’s come so far, but I don’t know how fragile it all is. Will the road she’s traveled turn to dust under her feet when I tell her about the article? She sees herself as a weakling. To me, she’s a warrior.
“Warner, what’s wrong?” Anna glances back into the house, then steps outside. She’s close to me, and reflexively I take a step away to give her space. There was a time when space was the last thing I’d give her. When I’d hover over her, watchful, worried sick about what she might do.
My teeth grind together as I try to put everything into words. I was so certain I had to be the one to tell her she’s been outed, that the news should come from me, but now that I’m here, I’m at a loss for words. How do you tell someone you care about that the secret they’ve worked so hard to keep is now public knowledge, and it’s your fault?
Anna speaks. “Did something happen with Tenley?” Her tone holds care, but also reluctance. She’s mistakenly assuming I’m coming to her with relationship woes.
“Sort of,” I start. “There was a situation with a photographer. Tenley told him to stop taking pictures and he didn’t listen.”
A small dimple forms in Anna’s left cheek as she laughs. “Let me guess… you puffed up your chest and took care of business?”
Despite the heaviness in my heart, I chuckle. “Something like that.”
Anna’s head tips to the side. “Then what happened?”
I rub the pad of a thumb across my eye, stalling for time. “I think it piqued a whole lot of curiosity. One of the gossip sites must’ve started digging.”
All traces of humor disappear from Anna’s face. She crosses her arm in front of herself, like she can defend against whatever it is I’ve come to tell her. Instinctively, she knows this is about her.
“They were looking at me, I’m sure, trying to find something bad or interesting.” A disgusted grunt tickles the back of my throat. “I’m sure they figured out I’m a single dad, which begs the question about the mom.”
