For Wrath and Redemption (The Hometown Heartless)

by Brit Benson

You’re allowed to move on. It sounds like you’ve punished yourself enough.”

We’re all the villains in someone’s story.

“Sometimes you have to cut away the worn-down parts of yourself,” Mabel says. “The shit weighing you down. You’ve got to shed it so you can move forward.”

“I pay attention. The way you blush. The way you think. The way you fucking smell. You’re all I can think about, and I want you. I want you, Claire, and it’s going to get me in so much fucking trouble. But you want to know a secret?” “Yes,” I whisper, and I feel him smile. “Trouble is my weakness.”

“Tell me you feel it. I know I’m not imagining this. I know it. Tell me you feel it, too, whatever this is.”

He’s enchanting, is what he is. It’s the only word I can think to describe it. Jonah Hendrix is fucking enchanting, and I’ve been enchanted.

People do cruel things when they’re hurting.

I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know how. But I’ve fallen so fucking hard for this man, and if he doesn’t feel the same, it will ruin me. It will ruin me completely.

Claire Davis owns me. Body, mind, heart. All of it. And it’s terrifying.

“Getting sober was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the easiest decision I’ve ever made.”

“Falling in love feels like falling to your death.” “Jesus. Then why do people do it?” “Because it’s the revival that feels so sweet.”

“The only person in this room down on you is you. You’re so busy beating yourself up that you can’t understand why anyone would love you, but I do.

“Checkmate, Trouble. This win is all mine.”

Sobriety means I’m not numb anymore. These emotions aren’t dulled. Reality isn’t foggy. I feel everything, and I’m grateful for it.

For years, I let my wrath and self-loathing fuel my every move. I hurt people. I said and did terrible things. I pushed myself to the brink of death over and over. I’m not proud of the person I was, but it was that chaotic maelstrom of mistakes that lead me to her, so I can’t regret it entirely. All I can do is vow to be better moving forward. To spend every day earning her love, earning this happiness, and to never take any of it for granted.

“I love you, Trouble. Endlessly.”

In this moment, I can’t bring myself to regret any decision I’ve made, no matter how reckless, because it brought me to her. To here. To them.

And for the first time in my entire life, I love who I’ve become. I’m content. I’m happy. I’m healing.