The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 119

Chapter 71-1

Clam

By the time Mayhem pulls into the underground car park beneath the penthouse, my cheeks actually hurt from laughing.

“I’m telling you,” he says as he kills the engine. “There is absolutely no way anyone who willingly builds compost toilets can be trusted.”

I smile as I climb out of the backseat. “You liked her.”

“I tolerated her,” he corrects me.

“You asked for a business star reading chart thing.”

“Research.”

“Oh my God.” Jade snorts and unclips her seatbelt. “You’re actually going to let her do it. And here I thought I knew the man I married.”

Mayhem straightens indignantly. “I’m simply interested in proving her wrong.”

“Wrong about what?” she asks as she shuts her door.

“I don’t know yet,” he admits.

“Convenient.”

We head towards Locke’s private elevator together. Mayhem presses the button, then types his name into the request panel.

“So…” He glances at me. “She’s actually all right.”

“High praise,” I comment.

“I don’t hand it out lightly.”

The elevator arrives with a quiet chime, we step inside, and the doors slide shut. For a few seconds, there’s only the gentle hum of us climbing through the building.

Then Mayhem says, “Do you think she really can deliver a lamb?”

“I don’t know,” Jade says. “Why?”

“I kind of want to find out.”

“Please don’t buy one,” she says. “I swear to God…”

“I’m not buying a pregnant lamb.”

“What are you planning then?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Jade leans against the mirrored wall. “That sentence has never ended well.”

Chapter 71

H’ll be fine.

“It absolutely won’t.”

Before they can carry on with what I’m starting to think is their bizarre form of foreplay, the doors opens into the penthouse. Locke looks up from the kitchen where he’s making coffee, and his face softens the moment he sees me.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey, handsome.”

He walks over and kisses the top of my head before looking at the other two. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“We’re escorting precious cargo,” Mayhem says.

“I appreciate it.” Locke smiles. “How was family dinner?”

The three of us look at one another, and nobody speaks.

Finally Mayhem shrugs. “She’s weird.”

Jade nods. “So weird.”

I laugh. “The weirdest person I’ve ever met.”

Locke looks mildly concerned. “That bad?”

“No,” all three of us say together. We stop, look at each other again. Then Jade smiles.

“She’s actually pretty amazing.”

Mayhem sighs as though physically inconvenienced. “Annoyingly amazing.”

I drop my purse onto the kitchen island. “She spent six months in Peru learning medicinal plants.”

Locke raises an eyebrow. “Of course she did.”

“She can apparently deliver lambs,” Jade adds.

He blinks. “Live ones?”

“I think so.” She considers. “I mean, I hope so.”

“She built a compost toilet,” Mayhem says. “And she can’t change a tire.”

“I don’t know why those are the things you’re stuck on,” I say.

Locke looks from one of us to the other. “I’m struggling to build a coherent picture of the woman here.”

“You and the rest of us.” Mayhem folds his arms. “Oh, she also reads auras.”

I looks at Jade now, as a thought occurs to me. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Always.”

2/3

Chapter L

“You were hesitant about Willow at first,” I say. “That first day, when she showed up in the garage.”

Her smile fades. “Yeah, I was. A little.”

“Why?”

Jade looks down at the mug in her hands before answering.

“I wasn’t worried about money, or the club, or anything like that.” She sighs. “I kept wondering whether she’d expect too much from your Dad, and from you. Like she’d expect instant acceptance and love, everything on warp-speed, and I wasn’t sure how you’d all react to that.”

Locke leans against the counter. “So what changed your mind about her?”

Jade doesn’t hesitate. “She spent the whole evening tonight trying to understand us. Not impress us, or charm us, or demand that we understand her. Understand us. I think she’s trying to – learn who we are, and how she can maybe fit in. I think she wants to contribute something new and unique, and she admires what we have and can do already. I don’t think she sees us as competition, more like, a team that maybe needs a new member.”

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