The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 177

Chapter 96-2

“This is the worst part,” Jade admits quietly, her voice sounding unusually small in the vast room. She stares out at the distant mountains, her knees hugged tight against her chest. “The waiting. The men think the hard part is slipping through the mud with a gun in their hand, but it isn’t.”

I nod, suck in a deep breath.

“The hard part is sitting in a clean, quiet room, staring at a clock,” she says. “Knowing that your whole life could be destroyed miles and miles away… and you wouldn’t even feel the tremor until someone walks through that door. Or doesn’t.”

I look sideways at her, struck by the raw honesty in her profile. In the dim blue light filtering through the glass, Jade looks less like the untouchable, sharp-tongued queen of the clubhouse and more like a woman carrying the heavy weight of a terrifying love.

“How do you do it?” I ask softly. “How have you done it all these years with Mayhem?”

“You don’t get used to it, Zara,” she says simply. “Anyone who tells you that you get used to being an MC woman is lying to you through their goddamn teeth. You just learn how to build a bigger armor. You learn how to get dressed, paint your nails red, and talk fast enough that nobody sees how hard your heart is beating.”

She turns her head to look at me, her jade-green eyes softening with immense warmth.

“Mayhem was a wild man when I met him, you remember? Completely reckless, running on pure adrenaline and club loyalty. But the first time he looked at me like he was terrified of dying… that was the day I knew I was stuck with him forever.”

A small, quiet laugh escapes my chest. “Locke looks at me like that every single day.”

“Because you’re his anchor,” Jade says simply, reaching over to squeeze my hand. “Before you, Locke was a machine, Zara. He did the club’s heavy lifting, he kept his mouth shut, and he didn’t care if he woke up tomorrow. You gave him a life he actually wants to keep.”

Silence stretches between us again, but this time, it feels less like a wall and more like a bridge. The clock on the mantle ticks over to three-fifteen in the morning.

I look down at our joined hands, tracing the smooth gold ring on Jade’s thumb. The lingering shadows of the nightmare I had earlier in the week – of Willow standing at the foot of my bed with that silver key and her hollow, cold gaze – flicker in the back of my mind.

“Can I ask you something?” I say quietly.

“Anything,” Jade answers without hesitation. “Always.”

“Do you… do you wish things could have been different with Willow? Like – she wouldn’t be a nutcase who thinks Locke’s her destiny, and she could have joined the family?”

Jade stills beside me, her eyes shifting as she absorbs the question. She doesn’t rush to answer, giving the heavy topic the space it deserves in the quiet room.

“I wish she wasn’t a lunatic,” Jade says plainly. “For Cobra’s sake. And for yours. I don’t thin Mayhem is

Chapter 962-

bothered either way about having a half-sister, but you and your Dad are.”

Clam

† pull a long breath into my chest, staring out at the rain-slicked glass. “When Dad told me I had a half-sister, a part of me was secretly thrilled. Growing up without a mom, being the only girl in a clubhouse full of rough, protective men… it was lonely in a way people don’t really understand.”

“Yeah. I can see that.”

“Dad and Mayhem did their best, you know, and they shielded me from everything, but I always felt like I was missing that female anchor. Every time I saw girls with sisters, I wanted that so badly.”

My voice cracks slightly, the raw truth of years of quiet longing bubbling to the surface.

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