The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 132

Chapter 77-3

“You weren’t there,” Ipoint out, “So you don’t really know.”

“I know women.”

“Jade,” I say quietly. “What if I got it all wrong, what I saw in the kitchen?”

Jade looks at me carefully. “Do you think you did?”

Cla

I close my eyes, and the kitchen flashes behind them. Willow smiling, leaning forward to display her breasts, her fingers around Locke’s wrist. The easy intimacy of it all, and the way he stood there and let

her.

“No,” I whisper. “I don’t think I imagined it.”

“Then stop forcing yourself to borrow everybody else’s doubt.”

“What if I ruin everything with Locke?” I open my eyes. “I mean, what if I accused him unfairly?”

“Then you apologize.”

“That simple, huh?”

“No.” Jade picks a mint from the basket, hands it to me. “But survivable.”

“You’re really on my side, aren’t you? Even though Mayhem isn’t.”

“He is on your side.” Her expression tightens. “He just thinks that being on your side means helping you see the situation clearly, and for him, that means seeing it how Locke sees it.”

“And you?”

“I think it means standing beside you until you’re strong enough to decide what clear looks like… and nobody decides that for you.”

Something hot presses behind my eyes, and I look away before it can spill over.

After a moment, I say, “Willow’s been here for what? A week?”

“Less, technically. Like, five days.”

“God.” I shake my head. “She’s wrecking relationships left and right.”

For one second, she stares, then she snorts. I smile, happy to see Jade looking like herself again.

“I mean,” I say, opening my mint. “She’s managed to take down mine.”

“And apparently mine,” Jade says.

“At this rate, Dad will be divorcing somebody by Friday.”

“He isn’t married”

Chapter 722

“Oh, hell, I say. “That won’t stop her.”

Jade laughs properly this time, bending forward and covering her face with one hand. When she stops, she leans her shoulder against mine, and I rest my head against hers.

“Do you think you and Mayhem will be okay?”

“Yes.” She doesn’t even hesitate. “I married a damn good man.”

I smile faintly. “He’s just being stubborn?”

“Mmm-hmmm. And so am I, frankly.”

Outside, the rain taps softly against the window, and I find myself getting sleepy.

“I don’t know what happens now,” I admit “About Willow, I mean.”

“You don’t have to.”

“But she’s my sister.”

“Yes.”

“And if this changes everything?”

“Can I ask you something?”

I nod.

“If you’d walked into that kitchen, seen exactly what you saw, and Willow wasn’t your sister…” She looks up. “Would you have reacted any differently?”

I don’t even have to think. “No.”

“Neither would I.”

“I still don’t know what happens now.” I frown. “I don’t want to be the reason this family breaks apart, just as it starts putting itself together.”

“Families don’t break because one person tells the truth.” Her voice is calm. “They break because people decide what they’re going to do with the truth afterwards. If Willow decides she’s embarrassed, she’ll deal with that. If she decides she’s angry, she’ll deal with that. If she decides she wants nothing to do with anyone, that’ll be her decision too.”

I look down at the blanket. “I hate this.”

“Listen, Zara… you didn’t do anything wrong.” Jade stands up, turns to the door. “All you did was refuse to pretend you hadn’t seen something. What everyone else does with that isn’t your responsibility. Now get some sleep.”

The door closes softly behind her, and I stare at it for a few minutes before my eyes start to feel incredibly heavy. I lie down, turn over on my side, and for the first time since I got taken out of Locke’s place, unconscious and on a stretcher… I stop wondering what the hell I should have done differently.

Because the answer is: nothing.

Chapter 78

Chapter 78-1

Locke

I didn’t sleep last night.

That isn’t unusual for me. I’ve gone entire nights without closing my eyes when club business was bad enough, when numbers refused to balance, or somebody’s life depended on a decision no one else wanted to make.

This is different, though. This is Zara. The apartment still feels like her, even though she’s gone.

Claim

Her mug sits beside the sink, the one with the tiny chip in the handle that she refuses to throw away because she says it fits her thumb perfectly. The blanket she always steals is bunched at one end of the couch, as if she might come back through the door, curl beneath it and complain that I’ve made the place too cold again.

I stand in the kitchen, drinking much-needed coffee, and stare at my phone. I type her name.

Delete it.

Type again.

Are you awake?

Delete.

How are you feeling?

Delete.

I’m sorry.

That one stays on the screen longer, because it’s true. It just isn’t enough.

I promised to give her space, and no matter how things look right now, I don’t break promises to Zara. Not even when every part of me is screaming to get on the bike, go to the hospital and make her look at me until she understands.

Understands what, though? That I didn’t know Willow was flirting? That I should have known? That I would rather cut off my own fucking hand than use it to touch anyone who isn’t Zara?

I lock the phone and set it facedown on the counter. It rings immediately.

Cobra.

My stomach drops, because there it is. The call that I’ve been waiting for. He’s going to tear a strip off me, maybe quite literally. At the absolute minimum, he’s going to tell me not to come back. Not to the hospital. Not to the clubhouse. Not anywhere near his daughter.

I answer on the first ring. “Morning.”

“Clubhouse,” he says.

4

Chapter 78

“What time?”

“Now, man.”

The line goes dead-

Claims

I pull into the clubhouse parking lot ten minutes later.

The place is already busy. Bikes line the front of the building, brothers drifting in and out with coffee cups in their hands, conversations carrying across the morning air.

For a second I just sit behind the wheel, and try to think, beaches really, this could go one of two ways. Either Cobra wants to throw me out of the club, or he wants answers I don’t have. Neither option fills me with confidence.

I climb out, lock the truck and start towards the front door.

“Locke.”

I stop.

Willow is standing near the edge of the parking lot, a canvas bag hanging from one shoulder. Morning sunlight catches in her hair, and her smile brightens the moment she sees me.

“I was hoping I could talk to you before you go inside,” she says.

I glance towards the clubhouse. “Cobra’s expecting me.”

“It’ll only take a minute.”

She’s so earnest that saying no feels unnecessarily cruel, so I nod.

“Okay.”

Her smile widens. “Thank you.”

She falls into step beside me as we walk away from the entrance. “So, I’ve been thinking.”

Every instinct I have tells me those four words are dangerous, so I brace myself and wait.

“Sometimes the universe whispers,” she says with a smile. “And sometimes, it shouts.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“That’s all right.” She reaches into her bag. “I think I finally do.”

She pulls out a bracelet. It’s made from dark cord and polished stones, black and gray with one pale green bead in the centre. She holds it out to me.

“I made this.”

I hesitate before taking it. “Thank you.”

“It’s for protection.”

Chapter 78

“That’s… erin. That’s thoughtful.”

“You’ll need it.”

I look down at the bracelet, then back at her. “Need it? For what?”

Her expression softens. “The universe always tests soulmates before it lets them be together.”

Everything inside me stops, and all I can hear is that word.

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