Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 144

His grip was punishingly tight.

Wren frowned deeply. "Let go."

He didn't.

"Dead?" Lawrence stared her down, his voice dropping to a dangerous octave. "Until that divorce decree is finalized, you are still my wife."

Wren looked down at his hand, her gaze turning utterly detached.

"And?"

Lawrence had no answer.

He was simply infuriated by this cold, almost unrecognizable version of her.

Lately, everything was a blaring reminder that she was slipping away.

The Langford household was falling apart without her. Leo had started taking her side. Margaret had explicitly told her not to look back. Stellaris was fiercely protecting her, and even the buried secrets of Vivian Vance were coming to the surface.

The tighter he tried to hold on, the more she slipped through his fingers like sand.

And now, standing right here in his office, mere inches away, she looked at him as if she had already locked him out of her life forever.

The realization was unbearable.

He jerked her toward him.

Wren reacted instantly, throwing her free hand against his chest to shove him back.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Lawrence looked down at her.

Her eyes were devoid of warmth, completely stripped of the love that used to reside there.

He suddenly remembered how she used to look at him years ago.

When they first married, she had been so nervous, yet she would still peek up at him, her eyes shining with quiet hope. She would beam for days over a single kind word from him. She would wake up in the middle of the night to fetch him medicine when his stomach hurt. She would instinctively turn toward the door the second he came home.

He used to own all of that.

He just hadn't cared.

And now, she had taken it all back.

The frustration gnawing at his chest flared into something sharp and reckless. He dipped his head, attempting to kiss her.

Wren snapped her face away.

His lips brushed against her temple, missing their mark.

A split second later, Wren raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.

The sound wasn't deafening, but it was enough to shatter the air in the room.

Lawrence's head whipped to the side.

Wren picked up her purse, her voice eerily calm. "I'll attend the gala. Not for you, but for my mother and Stellaris. If you ever try something like this again, I'll call the police."

With that, she turned and walked out.

As the door swung open, a shadow darted out of sight in the hallway.

Wren didn't stop.

Willow stood by the potted plants around the corner, clutching a project file, her face drained of color.

She hadn't just arrived.

At least, not completely.

The reception room was soundproof, but the door hadn't fully latched for a brief second. She had seen Lawrence grab Wren's wrist. She had seen him lean in. And she had seen Wren slap him.

More importantly, she had seen the look in Lawrence's eyes after being rejected.

It wasn't the look a man gave a woman he didn't care about.

It was absolute possessiveness.

A bruised, furious realization that something of his had been taken away.

Willow's manicured nails dug into the edges of her file.

She had always assumed Lawrence's attachment to Wren was just habit and control.