Toxicity

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mox's P.O.V

I lied. I wasn't okay, and Jo would know that the second that we walked into the house. They found us as we were leaving, and we tried to keep it calm but it ended in a physical altercation. Seth and I fought Roman and Dante until they basically left us for dead. She wasn't going to be happy, and it was going to cause her blood pressure to rise. 

"Maybe you should just crash at our place. Jo doesn't need to see you like this." Seth says as we finally make it back into town. 

"I've already lied to her once tonight. It's better that I go home." I tell him, and pick up my phone to dial her number. "Hey angel, how was the shower?" 

"It was good. Got a lot of stuff for our baby boy. I told them the name, and they loved the meaning behind it." 

"That's good." I pause, and watch as Seth exits the car momentarily. "Listen, I know you know where I was tonight. I didn't want to worry you unless something happened." 

"Did something happen?" She questions, and I already hear the panic in her voice. "Mox?" 

"I'm almost home. We got into a fight with Roman and Dante when they spotted us. It was pretty ugly, but we're fine. I just don't want you to freak out when you see me." I tell her, and I expect her to yell at me, but she remains silent. "Jo? You still there." 

"Yeah." She answers, and I know she's trying her best not to freak out right now. "How bad is it, Jon?" My real name. Not good. 

"Nothing's broken." I tell her, and I'm met with more silence. "Baby, I promise you I'm fine." 

"Okay, I'll see you when you get home, then." She disconnects the line, and Seth hops back in the car. 

"She's not happy, is she?" He asks, and I shake my head. "Well, we knew this could end one of two ways. She knows how this life is. Becky does, too." 

"I know." 

I drop Seth off  before making my way to the house, and I see Izzy pulling out of the driveway. I get out of the truck, and wince when I pull the door shut. I enter the house, and it's dimly lit. The living room being taken over by the events of the baby shower, and I make my way down the hall to the bedroom where she was. "Hi." She turns around at the sound of my voice, and her eyes go wide. "I promise it looks worse than what it is." 

I was lying, but I couldn't tell her that. She is in pain every single day, and if this is the little bit that I need to go through to make sure that she's safe, then I will. She still remains quiet, and begins to remove the rest of the shirt that was basically ripped, and covered in blood. "Sit on the bed." She tells me, and I walk over to sit down on the edge of our bed. She disappears for a minute before coming back with cloths, and things to disinfect the cuts on my body. 

"You're not saying what you want to say." I state the obvious as she begins to clean me off. "Why?" 

"This is me not freaking out." She says bluntly, although I can feel the aggression behind it. "This is me cleaning you up after a fight. I'm just being your wife." She gently brushes the cloth over the cuts on my forehead, and I rest my hand on her wrist. "Jon, I need to get these clean." 

"Angel." I try to get her attention, but she ignores me. "Jo." Her eyes flicker down to meet mine, and I can see the uncertainty behind them. 

"What?" She asks, and I open her hand to drop the cloth. "I'm not done. You have a lot to get cleaned up. This could take a while." 

"Tell me how you really feel." I plead, and she looks up at the ceiling. "I promise it wasn't supposed to turn out like this." 

"That's what you always say, and what ends up happening?" Her anger resonates off of her, and it's the wrong time for me to be getting aroused but I don't give a fuck. "I know that this life is all you've known, and I knew what I was getting into when I fell in love with you, but fuck Mox. Is this what you want for our son?"