The Divorce That Brought Us Back novel Chapter 180

Inside the conference room.

During a tedious, drawn-out project progress report, the usually laser-focused Maloney found his mind wandering.

Nora had been acting strangely lately.

She was changing.

On the surface, she still looked like the same sweet, obedient girl.

But underneath, something had shifted.

She was getting bratty.

If he upset her, she'd physically kick him without hesitation.

Not that it hurt.

But she could hold a grudge and keep a straight face all day.

She had even mastered the silent treatment.

She was still incredibly easy to coax out of it, though.

And her awkward, stubborn little tantrums were highly entertaining.

But she was getting angry way too easily.

Take this morning, for instance.

Nora had a bad habit. She was an over-thinker. If she knew she had something important to do early the next day, she would wind herself up tight. Even with an alarm set, her internal clock would force her awake early.

Her entire body would be rigid even in her sleep.

Maloney had woken up early today and noticed her frowning and mumbling in her sleep, so he had pulled her into his arms to comfort her.

She kept shifting restlessly against him.

He couldn't resist kissing her.

He had fully intended to take her the night before.

She had even initiated by untying her robe—not that she never initiated, but she usually hated exposing herself with the lights on.

Last night, she had been incredibly forward.

Maloney had been instantly and completely aroused by her.

But then he had asked a few too many questions, and she had unloaded the horrific truth about Valery's past.

Maloney had already suspected some of it, but even he hadn't anticipated that Yates and the Smith parents could be that repulsive.

He had always assumed the parents genuinely loved Valery.

Whether out of familial duty or crushing guilt.

But the reality was they didn't even treat her like a human being.

It made no logical sense.

He had spent time analyzing it.

There was only one explanation.

He had orchestrated everything perfectly.

And the result?

Nathan, forced to live under someone else's roof, became a fragile, pathetic coward. Jasmine, treated like a puppet, awakened a vengeful sense of self-awareness out of pure despair. And Valery, the butterfly trapped in her cocoon, spent the majority of her life emotionally stunted and numb.

His thoughts drifted too far.

Regardless, Valery's tragic past was undeniably bleak.

Given the heavy, depressing atmosphere, Maloney couldn't exactly continue ravishing Nora.

He chose to focus on solving the problem instead.

He had suppressed a raging fire all night long.

So it was perfectly reasonable that the fire had erupted first thing the next morning.

Honestly, he hadn't planned on taking it all the way at first.

It was Nora who, after being woken up, started whimpering while eagerly arching into him.

But once he actually took her, she got mad about it.

Her temper really was getting worse by the day.

In the past, no matter what kind of dirty tricks he pulled on her in bed, she never got genuinely angry.

Now, she threw a fit over everything.