I Was Listening

LAYTON

After watching Brice walk away, I went to find Marissa and Annie. I wanted nothing more than to take Marissa into my arms and hold her until I knew she wasn’t hurting over what Brice did to her anymore.

When she told me her story, it took everything I had not to walk over and knock him the fuck out—for starters. Aggression had never been my first reaction to news, but it was when Marissa finally told me what he did. Everything.

Being left at the altar would have been bad enough, but the other stuff? It was no wonder she had such trust issues, that she was so fiercely protective of Annie and so sensitive about having to be reliable.

I didn’t blame her, I probably would have taken my child and moved to the Arctic Circle or somewhere equally as sparsely populated to ensure my kid never had to deal with that kind of behavior from anyone. A lot of how she had acted and reacted since I met her made more sense to me now, just like this deal with Banks and Brice made more sense to me n