Not bruise. Not sting.
Break.
Fuck.
My hands drop from my head and I walk to her. “Brooke,” I take her in my arms. “I need a little space right now.” I release a heavy breath. “I’m not gonna lie, this sucks and it hurts. So, I’m going to go to the store, and run some errands to clear my head.”
“Can I come with you?” She looks up at me. “Silas, please don’t leave like this.”
“Not right now. I’ll be back later.” I kiss the top of her head and let her go.
I replay our conversation in my head, and the thought of losing her starts to take over.
There’s only one place I know to take this kind of fear. My mama.
She answers on the first ring. “Hi, honey.”
“Hey,” I say, voice rougher than I meant it to be.
She hears it anyway. She always does. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
I close my eyes. “No, Mama, I’m okay. Dad around too?”
“Sure. Hang on a second.” There’s a pause. Then the soft shuffle of movement.
“No, you need to press Speaker so we can both hear him,” my dad tells my mom. “Silas? What’s going on?” my dad asks, calm and steady, like the world hasn’t just tilted.
“I need advice,” I say.
When I told my parents Brooke and I got married in Vegas, they took it well. My parents aren’t the type to involve themselves much into my business unless I ask.
My mom exhales. “Oh, that’s never a good sign.”
“Yeah.” I laugh dryly. “I found annulment papers,” I say.
Silence.
Then my dad clears his throat. “Did she ask for one?”
“No.”
“Were they signed?”
“No.” I release a heavy breath. “They were just … there.”
My mom’s voice softens. “Oh, Silas.”
“I’m not mad,” I say quickly. “I’m just—” I stop, jaw tightening. “I don’t understand. Things had been going so well, and it just took me by surprise. She says her dad had them drawn up.”
My dad speaks carefully. “How long have you been married now? What, like a month?”
I huff out a breath. “Technically, almost two months.”
“And how long have you known each other?” he asks.
“A year and a half now.”
“And how fast did everything happen between you?”
