She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 210

(Clarice)

He arrives at four in the afternoon with no warning and a bottle of wine.

I know it's him before I open the door.

Hendrik has this way of shutting his car door very gently.

It’s how he’s treated me for the entirety of our marriage, and one of the reasons I haven’t been able to bear seeing him.

He’s been so good to me, and I know I have to come clean with him too.

The thought of him looking at me with anything other than complete adoration is unbearable.

I open the door.

He has the bottle in one hand.

A good one. The some one we drank on our fifth anniversary, or at least produced by the same vineyard.

I’m not sure if he remembered or it’s just a lucky coincidence.

He’s equal measures thoughtful and charmed.

"You didn't call."

"I've been calling for months. I decided to try a different approach.”

He’s not even angry. That's the worst of it.

An angry Hendrik I could manage.

I could use it to convince myself this isn’t the right time to tell him the truth.

That I’d do it when we’re both calm.

He’s not giving me that lie to hide behind.

"Come in."

"Let's sit outside. You have a porch now. We may as well use it to enjoy the view."

He's right, it is a nice afternoon. The light off the water is a softly glimmering gold.

He opens the bottle in the kitchen and pours two glasses, carrying mine outside for me.

He sits and looks at the ocean.

Doesn't look at me, which is how I know he's about to say the thing he drove all this way to say.

"You've been gone for months, Clarice."

"I know."

"I’m tired of living in that huge house by myself. Of sleeping alone. I want my wife back. I've come to ask you to come home and I am not leaving this porch until you give me a real answer. Not a wispy one. A real one."

I look at the wine.

I’ve spent twenty years giving this man wispy answers. He accepted every one.

I took that for years to mean he didn't notice.

I understand now he noticed all of them and accepted them anyway, which is a different and much larger thing.

He deserves a real one. I’m out of road. I can’t keep running from the truth.

So I give it to him.

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