His Housewife Had Secret Identities novel Chapter 554

“You can write any number you want on it.”

Niamh picked up the check. Using a checkbook these days was so old-fashioned, she thought, though it was a common enough trope in the romance novels Lana loved to read.

She shrugged with a small smile. “Mr. Thomas, it’s your son who refuses to divorce me.” She then pulled out her phone. “I don’t have a checkbook, but I can do a wire transfer. If you can convince Jonathan to sign the papers, you can name your price. I’ll send the money right now.”

“You!” Sprague’s face turned purple with rage. Niamh was no longer the pushover she once was, but for her, a junior, to humiliate him with money was unthinkable.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Niamh,” Sprague sneered. “Jonathan’s refusal to divorce you is just a matter of male pride. Do you really think he loves you?”

Niamh’s face showed none of the conflict or turmoil he’d expected. She simply took a calm sip of her passion fruit tea. “Whether he loves me or not is irrelevant. I just want to be single again as soon as possible. If you can persuade Jonathan to let me go, it would save me the time and expense of hiring a lawyer to file for divorce. For that, I would be eternally grateful.”

She spoke with unwavering conviction, leaving Sprague to frown in thought. Could it really be that Jonathan was the one holding on?

With a disgruntled huff, Sprague stood up and stormed out of the cafeteria. Niamh, unhurried, finished her drink before leaving. She found Elmer waiting for her just outside. The worry in his eyes instantly dissolved into relief when he saw her.

“Did Jonathan’s father give you a hard time?” Elmer asked, walking to her side.

“He offered me a blank check to fill out… I’m kind of regretting not taking it,” Niamh joked, which made Elmer chuckle.

“Maybe they were fighting? Anyway, the last time Miss Rivers brought him in, she even brought fruit to the nurses’ station and asked us to tell him a man brought him to the hospital if he woke up.”

Jonathan pressed himself against the wall, trying to make himself invisible as he eavesdropped on the nurses' conversation.

Last time… He had been a patient here before, also for his stomach. It had been winter, during the second snowfall in Aldenville. He’d been following Niamh as she walked home, intending to escort her from a distance, but then Elmer had shown up in his white Lexus and whisked her away. That night, Jonathan hadn't gone home. He just sat in his car, enduring the searing pain in his stomach. He didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish. Maybe he just wanted to punish himself. He didn’t remember when he passed out, only that he woke up in the hospital. This very hospital.

So… it had been Niamh who brought him here that time, too.

Jonathan’s heart began to pound in his chest.