A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 523

Herbert picked up a napkin and gently dabbed at a smudge of sauce on the corner of Starla's mouth.

The tender gesture, hovering on the edge of intimacy, made her freeze for a second. She instinctively started to pull back.

But just as she moved, Herbert withdrew his hand, the task complete.

Starla felt a faint blush creep up her neck. "Th-thanks."

"When he used to go out with his friends," Herbert said softly, "and you'd call him, he'd ignore it. You're treating him the same way he treated you."

Starla blinked. It took her only a moment to understand. The roles had completely reversed. When she had cared about Fairfax, he had been arrogant and dismissive, taking her devotion for granted. Now that he was the one trying to reach her, she was treating him with the same casual disregard.

"Has he been giving you a hard time lately?" she asked. If he was this furious with her, she couldn't imagine he was being pleasant to Herbert.

Herbert skillfully carved the rest of the lamb off the bone and placed the tender meat in her small bowl.

"Eat," he said, avoiding her question, clearly not wanting to trouble her with the details. Fairfax was a nobody now, hardly worth discussing.

As their meal wound down, Herbert's expression grew more serious. "He still doesn't know you're Yardley's sister. This is the best time for you to finalize the divorce."

His concern mirrored Tanya's. If Fairfax discovered her connection to Yardley, a man who had been a major thorn in his side recently, the divorce could become much more difficult. Out of pure spite, he might refuse to sign just to make her suffer.

Starla nodded. "I know. I'm having someone draw up the divorce papers this afternoon. I'll make him sign them."

She shot him a cool glance but said nothing.

"Do you really have to be this ruthless?" he asked, his voice strained. Ruthless. That was an understatement for what she'd been doing lately.

"What about it?" she retorted. Of course she was being ruthless. She had no intention of stopping until the entire Yelchin clan was living in misery.

"We used to be good," he said, a desperate note in his voice.

"'Good'? Are you trying to appeal to our history now? Fairfax, you seem to forget that when you were tearing me down, you wanted to shred me to pieces," she scoffed. "This sudden sentimentality wouldn't have anything to do with your failure to get to the Hoggart Group's executives and drag Kael through the mud, would it?"