After Eleven: Liv & Callum

Chapter 12: Callum

A/N: Thank you for being patient with me on chapter updates! I know it's hard to have to wait when we've just entered the betrayal, but real life is quite busy right now. Enjoy!

Callum

This morning, I emailed everyone, telling them I needed to run a few documents over to the CXE office. In reality, it's because I can't bring myself to even look at Emily. It's not that I can't be trusted around her; it's that thinking about her makes me feel ill. So, instead of forcing myself to be around her and pretending I didn't betray my wedding vows with her last night, I changed my flight information and gave myself a few extra hours to examine this situation from every angle.

I've been jittery since it happened, but I need to pull myself together if I'm going to save my marriage. There isn't a world worth living in where my wife doesn't love me, but I never thought we'd be in this position, and I'm not 100% sure how to tackle this problem. I know that Liv needs to see that I'm ready to put in the work to fix our marriage and earn back her trust, so I write down everything I can think of before I get home.

I wish I could tell Liv that everything was one-sided, but my wife isn't an idiot. Despite what she, admittedly, has reason to believe, I haven't been deaf to her complaints about Emily and my work schedule. Truthfully, I think I brushed them off because I resented that she thought so little of me. I've never been unfaithful before, never given her a reason to distrust me, and it was insulting that she was constantly implying that I wasn't dedicated to my family, that I didn't miss the time I used to spend with them. I thought I was doing this big thing to make our lives better in the future, but, in reality, I think I've been ignoring what was obvious to everyone else.

I know I love my wife; I know I don't want to be with anyone else and can't picture a life with anyone but her. Unfortunately, I lulled myself into a false sense of entitlement and confidence, stopped listening to the one person whom I have always trusted in the past.

These realizations may be coming a day late and a penny short, though. I spend the entire flight writing things down; things I need to apologize for, things I don't have answers for yet, and things I'll do to regain Liv's trust. I want to have all my thoughts and plans well laid out before I see my wife.

The closer my car gets to the house, the harder my clammy hands grip the wheel. At this point, I'm fairly confident I'm going to leave sweaty indents in the leather of the steering wheel. Will Liv even be at the house? She and Annie could be at Andrea's or even a hotel. It doesn't matter because I'll scour this town until I find her and bring her home.

I'm relieved to see her sedan in the driveway. I know it's a bit much, but I park in a way that she won't be able to get out of the driveway without moving my car first. She's never shied away from an argument before, but we've never had to work through something of this magnitude.

Everything looks normal when I walk in; I don't see any moving boxes, and our wedding photo is still blown up above the mantle. I wait for a moment and listen to the house, but I can't hear anything other than the normal hums and creaks of our home. The girls usually meet me at the door, but that doesn't happen today.

I pause in the entryway, waiting to hear some signs of life in the house.

After a beat, I hear, "I'm in the kitchen," and steel myself for what is coming next. It's as if I've passed into the twilight zone when I walk into the kitchen and see my wife at the counter, asking me how my business trip went. She's never called me 'honey' before. She's never waited in the kitchen for me when I got home, and it feels like there's a different woman who looks just like Liv.

Muscle memory means I've already shed my keys, luggage, and blazer at the front door. I'm standing in front of my wife in travel-wrinkled slacks and a button-down with coffee splatters from an overpriced airport coffee. On the other hand, Liv looks gorgeous, if not tired. The dark rings under her eyes and the tense way she holds her body show me that she probably didn't sleep much better than I did.