Challen and Addy

Chapter 30 (Challen): She Was So Mad

Copyright © 2025 by GroveltoHEA

We were in one of the forward seating areas that consisted of four chairs, two facing the other two. Addy and I sat next to each other and Grady sat in the chair facing Addy. He had some headphones on and was reading a book, but every once in a while, he'd look out the window, run his right hand over his left, and then return his attention to his book.

"This was nice of you to arrange this, Challen," my wife said to me quietly.

"All I did was make a few calls, Addy," I said just as softly. "It gutted me thinking about his situation. He was getting rehab, far away from his wife and premature newborn, who was fighting for her life. If my company hadn't been willing to completely bend the rules and let me work remotely so I could be near you, I would have had to stay behind in order to keep my job so we didn't lose our insurance. I would have been going out of my mind."

Something was on her mind, something deep and I wondered if she'd bring up whatever was bothering her in front of Grady, even though he probably couldn't hear us. She surprised me when she went ahead and talked about it.

"I was in the hospital for three days and you didn't even know it."

I could practically hear Hannah in my head, telling me to face whatever Addy brought up calmly, honestly and head on, and to share my thoughts with her about what I was thinking.

"No, I didn't," I said evenly, although I felt like gagging every time I thought about those three days. "I'm sorry about that, but that doesn't really begin to cover how much that sickens me thinking about you alone in the hospital, in a coma without your husband or anyone there for you." 

Calm down, Challen and get it all out.

"I honestly thought you were mad at me and ignoring my text, and then I didn't have time to think about anything but fixing the bug and writing new code for the next three days at work."

Those words about prioritizing work over her came out like I had a mouthful of peanut butter I felt so sick and wrong saying them. The bile rose up in my throat and I wondered if they had air sickness bags on private planes. I swallowed a few times and breathed deeply, battling the nausea down.

"Addy, I didn't know you weren't simply ignoring me and if I had known something was wrong, I would have been there. You expect the police to show up or a neighbor to call if something bad has happened so it all went back to my assumption that you were just that pissed at me. I can't fix that, no matter how much I want to."

"The police couldn't let you know since I left the house without my ID."

"No, they couldn't, but had I been the husband I used to be, I would have followed up. I have a really long list of things that I wish I could change, but I can't. I wish I had realized something was wrong, I wish I had kept reaching out to you. I wish I'd thought to go home and check. I wish, I wish, I wish. But all the wishing in the world doesn't change how I handled that and the assumption I made and what happened. It all boils down to me being a shit husband and human being, Addy."

"You're not a terrible human being, Challen. But I can agree with you turning into a terrible husband."

"Addy, I hate that your accident was a wake up call for me, you being hurt like that and me not knowing. But I can't pretend it wasn't. It made me reevaluate everything I was doing and saying and I was disgusted with who I'd become."

"You never thought about having an affair with her?"

I hadn't been expecting that segue, but if Addy was going there, I'd follow.

"Fuck no. I never once thought about betraying you physically. But after your accident, I heard about the term emotional affair, and some of the shit I was doing qualified."

"So you had feelings for her?" Her voice was horrified, louder than it had been to this point, and she shot a glance at Grady, who hadn't reacted in the slightest.

"No. But I looked up the signs of an emotional affair, and although the emotion for her wasn't there, I was spending more time with her than I was with you. I was having meals together with her to plan our next workout or talk about work, prioritizing my workouts with her over spending time with you -- those are some of the signs of one. She was easy to work out with and made me work harder and that working out harder part was critical to me. I wish there was a better term than emotional because I never had feelings for her. I think a workout affair would be a better term, but whatever you call it, it was wrong. I was putting myself and my workouts and meals with her above you."

"You know, I was getting ready to talk to a lawyer about divorcing you."

"You'd reached your limit. I don't blame you."

"I was feeling done." She sighed. "Would you have cared?"

Putting my hand on her cheek, I nodded. "It would have been a wake up call like you being in the hospital for three days was a wake up call."

"Why did it take something so extreme for you to remember me?"

"I've talked about this with Hannah several times, about why I couldn't figure this out on my own and just stop being an asshole. She said when someone is so obsessed with something like I was and that obsession stems from a deep grief that makes them focus on themselves and no one else, it often takes something extremely serious to shake them out of their selfishness."

"I knew you were struggling with losing your father, Challen, but I didn't realize the extent."

"Maybe I didn't, either, until your accident and in talking with Hannah."

"You like Hannah? She's helping?"

"Yeah, she's been great. She's funny. Sometimes she brings up her twin fifteen-year-old grandsons and tells me stories about their lack of critical thinking skills, and even though she never says it outright, I know I'm supposed to draw the parallel to myself."

Addy's lips twitched again before she sighed. "I think I'm done for now."

"Anytime you want to talk about anything, just start."

"I'm seeing more of you -- the old you. This weekend trip to see Grady's family, that's totally the old you."

"It doesn't make up for what I did to you, Addy. All this does is move me one step closer to who I was and who I want to be again."

Grady took off his headphones and looked out the window before Addy could say anything.

"Bad things happen when you're fighting."

She and I looked at each other, wondering if he he'd heard everything.

"Addy was in the hospital without you for three days because you'd been fighting for a long time."

"Grady," she said but didn't say anything else because he kept talking.

"My wife and I were fighting in the car. Carys was mad at me for not being more excited about the baby, but I was excited -- I just didn't show it the way she expected. So we got in a really bad fight, and I was looking over at her and missed the red light. And that's when we got T-boned. I caused our accident because of our fight."

"I'm sorry, Grady," I said.

"She was so mad at me that she wouldn't even talk to me while I was in the hospital. She stayed at the other hospital with Rosabel, but she wouldn't FaceTime me or even talk to me. We've been talking on the phone since I got moved to rehab, and we've been working our problems out. So this is the first time I'm going to see Carys since the accident. That's why she cried on the phone when I told her I was flying out to see her and Rosabel."