Page 111 of When We Had Forever
“I’ll show you. Do you have your phone?”
I dig around in the side pocket of my leggings and pull out my cell. Grayson plucks his off the bedside table, then tilts his screen toward me and punches buttons.
“You know my number by heart.” My frown fills my voice.
“I do.Now. Not then.” He clicks Call and puts it on speaker. It goes straight to voicemail.
I watch my screen the whole time. Nothing.
“At first, I thought it was because you were on the plane.” Grayson tosses his phone aside. “But it kept happening even after you should’ve landed, and I finally started wondering if maybe Michael had done something. If he’d gotten ahold of your phone and blocked me. Made it so Icouldn’tcall you.”
“I... No. He wouldn’t have. He wasn’t like that.” I shake my head, even as warmth drains from my cheeks. The morning after we first went to bed together, he called in to work. Frommy phone.
I don’t know why I still remember that.
Grayson watches my face. “Have you ever checked your blocked numbers? Even once?”
I glance down. My hands tremble, but I unlock my phone and navigate to the blacklist. There’s only one entry. No contact name, just a phone number with a Seattle area code.
One I didn’t put there. I’ve never blocked anyone in my life.
“That’s you?” My question sounds tiny. Shrill.
“That’s me.” He reaches over, clicks Unblock, and releases a long exhale. “I have to say, I’ve been wanting to do that for fourteen years.”
“But you still could’ve reached me.” My words come out small, stunted. “From another phone. Don’t even try to pretend like this somehow kept us apart.”
“No, you’re right. Although I wasn’t thinking clearly that first day. When I realized I couldn’t reach you, I went straight to the condo. Except Juan refused to let me up, and when Michael came down...” His jaw hardens. He glances down, curling one fist into the opposite palm. “I knew. The second I saw him, I just knew. I couldsmellyou on him. And I completely lost my shit. That whole month you and I had spent together, all that waiting... I’ve hit my fair share of guys in my life, but never like that. Never, ever like that.”
I do a quick calculation and try to keep my chin from trembling. “Oh, god. This means...”
He tenses. “What?”
I swallow, my throat raw. “I had sex with Michael likefive minutesafter I met him. Five actual minutes.”
He winces and closes his eyes. I suspect if Michael were here right now, Grayson would hit him all over again—back from the dead or not. “He shouldn’t have done that to you.”
“No. Well, Ididkind of throw myself at him. And beg. In my underwear. I was just so relieved you’d come home. That you were okay.”
“All he had to do was tell you his name,” he grinds out.
That draws a hiss from me. “Allyouhad to do was tell meyours. Or pick up a freaking phone that belonged to someone else.”
He averts his gaze, as if he can’t bear to meet my eyes. “I know. But I couldn’t, not then. Because that day, I went to jail for the second time.”
My jaw slackens. “What? Why? For beating Michael up?”
“Yeah. And those charges took a lot longer to sort out, because I’d just done the same thing the day before, at least in the law’s eyes. I was in for over a month that time. And while I was there, Michael came to see me.”
My chest rises and falls, its tempo building. Until a few days ago, I’d never thought of my husband as conniving. Or manipulative. But it seems I had no idea who I was married to. “What did he say?”
Grayson recoils from the icy venom in my tone, but I don’t have the wherewithal to tell him it’s not him I’m angriest at right now. “That he’d told you everything. That you’d slept with him knowing who he was. That you hated me for not being up front with you and thatyou’dblocked my number. That you never wanted to see me again.”
Silence floods the room. “And what? You just...believedhim?”
“Not at first. But it was the exact thing I’d been so afraid of. And it fucked me up, Mina. Screwed with my head. But that wasn’t all. Michael told me I’d taken Lily from him, and it was only right that I let him have you.”
I gape. I can’t picture my own husband speaking about me that way.
