The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 257

Chapter 1297

Chapter 129-2

Claim

I’m feeling so utterly lost and disconnected. I just want to talk to my sister. No talk about Locke, I promise. I just need someone who understands what it feels like to be without a parent.

Please, can we have coffee? Just the two of us?

I stare at the text, my fingers tightening around the phone.

“What does she want?” Locke asks.

“She says she’s lost,” I say, turning the screen so he can read it. “She says wants to talk. She promised not to bring you up.”

Locke doesn’t even finish reading before he lets out a harsh, dismissive sound.

“She’s lying, Zara. Or she’s setting up another big dramatic freak-out scene. She tried to undermine our relationship while you were recovering from chemo. She doesn’t get to text you playing the pathetic

victim.”

“I know,” I say quietly, looking back down at the screen. “I know what she said, Locke. It hurt me. It made me furious.”

“Then delete it,” Locke says firmly. “You’re just getting your strength back, baby. You don’t need her chaotic, unhinged energy pulling you down into the mud again. Let Cobra handle his daughter.”

I look into his eyes, feeling the absolute, unyielding love radiating from him. He wants to build a wall around me to keep every sharp edge of the world from touching my skin, and part of me wants nothing more than to hide behind him forever.

But another part of me hesitates.

Willow is delusional, yes. But she also lost her mother recently, was tossed out by the father she spent years searching for, and has no one. I remember what it feels like to be adrift, grieving, and utterly alone.

“I’m not going to invite her here, Locke,” I say gently. “And I’m definitely not going to meet her alone in some quiet alley or let her back into our life. I’m not stupid.”

Locke frowns. “Zara…”

“Listen to me,” I say, stepping closer to him, looking up into his dark gaze with quiet conviction. “I know she was awful, but she’s still my half-sister. If she truly has no one to turn to, I can’t just ignore her completely. My conscience won’t let me.”

Locke stares at me for a long moment. His chest heaves with a deep, frustrated breath.

“You are too damn good for this world, baby,” he says. “She doesn’t deserve your kindness.”

“Maybe she doesn’t,” I admit. “But I need to know I treated her like a human being.”

Locke stays silent for three long beats before letting out a low, resigned sigh.

“Fine,” he says. “But you do not meet her alone. You do not meet her anywhere private. If you talk to her, it’s

Chapter 129

on the phone.”

“Deal.”

Clem

“And if you do eventually agree to see her face-to-face, it will be at the crowded diner on 4th Street, in the middle of the day, with me sitting at a corner table.”

I smile at his fierce, unyielding protectiveness. I reach up on my tiptoes, pressing a sweet, lingering kiss to his hard jaw.

“Deal again,” I whisper against his skin. “Strictly public. Guarded. And only if she proves she can behave herself.”

I look back down at the phone, and I type out my response:

Willow, I’m sorry to hear you’re having a hard time.

I’m willing to talk to you, but only under strict conditions.

No talk about Locke, and no talk about cosmic soulmates. If you can respect my boundaries, we can talk on the phone tomorrow afternoon.

Let me know if that works for you.

I hit send.

Before the screen even locks, I hold down the power button, tap shut down, and drop the phone onto the granite counter with a dull thunk. I’m done. I gave Willow her boundaries, and I’m not spending another second letting her ghost haunt my evening.

I turn on my heel, walking away from the kitchen and heading straight toward the fireplace. The heat of the roaring fire hits my skin in waves, burning away the lingering chill of the blizzard outside.

Locke watches me go. “Zara? What are you doing?”

“I have better things to do with my time than stare at a phone screen,” I say softly, looking over my shoulder at him.

He blinks, stepping toward me. “Like what?”

Without a word, I untie the silk belt at my waist. I let the soft fabric part, slipping my arms out of the sleeves and letting the robe fall to a pool around my ankles.

I stand naked before the amber blaze of the fire, the warm orange light bathing every inch of my skin, casting long, soft shadows against the hearth. I take a deep, slow breath, lifting my chin, feeling the sheer, exhilarating heat of being alive, healthy, and back in my own body.

Locke completely stops in his tracks. His dark eyes flare with a sudden, scorching intensity, his throat working as he swallows hard.

And I know that all thoughts of Willow, the club, and the world outside are instantly wiped clean from his mind.

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