I Want My Wife
CULLEN
“It’s done?” I repeated, almost as a whisper.
But I could feel my whole body starting to burn, to boil from the inside out. It was rising fast now, this anger. A kind I had never felt before. Not like this.
“Look, Cullen,” my father said, and for the first time, he looked... tired. “You didn’t want the poor girl. I forced her on you. And now I’ve taken her away.”
His words were flat. Final.
“I know you’ve been... explosive these past few weeks. But I need you to keep yourself together.”
He exhaled. “Because it’s done. She left. So deal with it.”
Deal with it?
“It’s done?” I echoed again, my voice shaking now. “You want me to deal with it?”
I could feel my mother’s hands tighten on my shoulders, her nails biting into my skin, trying to hold me down, to keep me seated. But I wasn’t having it.
I stood. No force on earth was going to hold me down in that moment.
I had never, not once thought about hurting my father. But in that minute, as I looked at his smug face, the way he sat there so calm, so relaxed, so unbothered by what he had just done..... I wanted to strangle him. I wanted him to feel even a fraction of what was burning through me right now.
“She was my wife!” I shouted. “You had no right. No right! And even if you were going to do it, you should have told me. You should have involved me.”
My voice cracked with rage.
“You forced me to marry someone I didn't want, and I did it. I married her. I followed your damn rules. I lived in your house. I did what you wanted.
And then you decide to take her back without a heads-up? You just sign your deals, and you take her back like she’s property. Like I’m just part of the deal too!”
I released a breath, trying to calm myself but my chest was rising too fast. My hands were fists.
“I signed a marriage certificate,” I growled. “And I’m not signing a goddamn divorce.”
“It’s not a divorce Cullen,” my father said coolly. “It’s an annulment. Which means the marriage never happened.”
“But it happened!” I shouted, my voice breaking completely now. “It fucking happened!”
My father looked disappointed, almost like he didn't want to be here,
"I'm not signing it." My voice was hard, unshaken. "I'm not signing the annulment. The divorce. Whatever it is you decided.... I’m not signing the damn papes."
That’s when he stood.
“The Irish are not scared to go to war for her,” he said. “She already told her dad how you’ve been treating her. What led her to try and take her own life.”
My heart sank. My fists tightened. But he kept going.
“He took his daughter back home. And I am not going to get in a war with them over you. Over a marriage I forced upon you. A marriage you never respected, never acknowledged.”
He looked at me like I was the unreasonable one.
“So excuse me if I don’t get why you’re mad. But I advise that you get on with the program. Because she is gone. And the contract is already signed... When the papers for the annulment come, you’re going to sign them. Do you understand?”
That’s when I stepped forward. But before I could take another step, Cyrus moved. He got in front of me fast, putting his hand hard on my chest.
I turned my attention toward him. And then I looked at everyone in the room. I took several steps back and just stared at them as a whole.
“You were all there, weren’t you?” I said, my voice hard and shaking. “Everybody.....”
“Cullen…” my mom called gently.
I knew what she was trying to do. Calm me down. Before it exploded into something nuclear.
I looked at Cyrus again.
“You were there.”
“Okay, Cullen, just calm down...” he started.
“Why the fuck was he even there?” I shouted, pointing directly at him. “He is the reason she tried to kill herself!”
Cyrus went quiet.
I continued, rage boiling. “You all thought it was right, that he should be there and not me? Her husband? The one she belonged to, the one who should have been there....”
I looked back at my father. Then back at Cyrus.
“You whole bunch of hypocrites. All of you.”
“Watch your mouth,” my father snapped.
The consigliere stood up.
“Okay, everyone just.... let’s calm down—”
“I’m not calming down,” I barked. “I want my wife back.”
“I want her back,” I growled again. “And I’m going to get her back. I don’t care if I have to go into Irish territory. I just want her back.”
“She doesn’t want you!”
My father finally lost it, shouting it like it burned his throat. His eyes were wide. His face was red. Furious.
I looked at him and then swallowed. And for a second just a second, I almost believed him.
“No,” I said, “You’re lying.”
My father laughed. But it wasn’t the kind of laugh that came with amusement.
“Where did I go wrong with you boys?” he muttered, shaking his head. “I tried everything. Your mother was there to nurture you. I was there to strengthen you. We were both there.... How?”
He looked at me like he was accusing me of something even he didn’t have the words for.
“Please stop,” I cut in sharply. “This isn’t about you. This is about me and my wife. And I want my wife back.”
“Like I said,” he snapped. “She doesn’t want you.”
He was yelling now.
“She’s the one who told her father she wants to leave you. She doesn’t want anything to do with you. She wants to be away from you. And her father and I thought it was a good idea.”
He moved, tugging his jacket from the back of his chair like the conversation was done. Like the chapter was closed.
But it wasn’t over. Not for me.
“You weren't there,” I said, almost under my breath.
“You weren't there. And you didn’t see the connection we made.”
I stepped forward.
“We talked. I felt something. There was something between us. I know she felt it too... I am your son! You should have asked me, you should have talked to me first.”
“I don’t care what you think you felt,” my father said coldly, straightening his cuffs. “You’re actions spoke louder. You'd better get your pen ready because you're signing those papers.”
“No.”
He stared at me. “You will sign those goddamn papers.”
The room felt colder. The silence is heavier.
“I’ll give you a few days,” he added, adjusting his collar.
“A few days to get yourself together. But after that, it’s done. And we are never discussing this again.”
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