The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 264

Chapter 132-2

I pause, gathering the timeline in my head as I trace an invisible pattern over the edge of the blanket.

Claim

“Knox and Mayhem were both four years older than me, so whenever Knox came around the Grinning Skulls’ clubhouse, he was attached to Mayhem’s hip,” I say. “Dad was the VP back then, and Mayhem was already fully patched and rising fast through the ranks.”

Locke shifts slightly, his hand resting firm and heavy on my waist. “And where were you in all of that?”

“I was just a kid in the background,” I say. “I’d come by the clubhouse after school to help Dad go through receipts and organize the books. I was this quiet, overweight eighteen-year-old girl sitting at a corner table with a highlighter, a stack of paper ledgers, and a heart full of ridiculous fantasies.”

Locke turns his head slightly, pressing a gentle kiss to my hair. “A girl who was way too good for that room.

“I didn’t think so back then,” I say. “I was head over heels for him, Locke. Truly. To an eighteen-year-old girl, Knox was larger than life… drop-dead gorgeous, reckless, silver-tongued, and wearing that dark Howlers legacy like unbreakable armor.”

I pause again, taking a quiet breath as I look back at that younger version of myself.

“To him, I was entirely invisible,” I admit. “Worse than invisible: I was an annoying child, the little sister of his best friend who needed to stay out of the way. He’d walk past my table without even glancing down, completely oblivious to my existence.”

Locke’s arm tightens around me just a fraction, taking in every word. “He didn’t see what was right in front of him.”

“Not at all,” I say. “He was always walking out the front door with a different club girl on his arm. I sat there with my ledgers, crushing on him in absolute silence. I spent hours convincing myself that if I just grew up. or became prettier, maybe one day he’d finally turn around and look at me.”

Locke’s grip on my waist tightens hard, a sudden pulse of raw tension running through his massive frame. “Fuckin’ idiot,” he mutters darkly under his breath.

“Time went on,” I say. “Years passed while I finished school and took a boring, respectable desk job in the city, doing administrative accounting for an import firm.”

I close my eyes for a moment, remembering how isolated I felt during those transitional years.

“I moved into a small apartment, built a quiet routine, and tried to pretend I was completely over my teenage crush,” I explain. “Meanwhile, the club world was shifting dramatically as Dad finally rose to President of the Grinning Skulls and Mayhem became his Vice President.”

Locke rubs his thumb over my upper arm, encouraging me to go on. “That was when Crusher took over the Howlers, right?”

“Yes,” I say, opening my eyes to look back at the flickering hearth. “Over on the Howlers’ side, things went dark and dangerous when Crusher became President.”

I shake my head at the memory of that utterly terrifying man.

1/3

Chapter 1122

Cam

“You know that Crusher hated the Skulls with a passion,” I say. “He wanted complete control of the docks and shipping fines, and he started squeezing the Skulls hard at every opportunity. That tension ruined everything between the two clubs and fractured Knox and Mayhem’s lifelong friendship beyond repair.”

Locke rests his jaw against my crown, his voice low. “Split right down the middle.”

“Exactly,” I say. “Knox was rising through the Howlers’ ranks, fiercely loyal to his dead father’s patch, caught between his best friend and his club’s aggressive new direction.”

“I remember.”

“Yeah. Relations spiraled into a bitter cold war, with line skirmishes, threatened borders, and constant standoffs. And all the while, sitting at my quiet office desk in the city with my color-coded files, I was still holding a torch for a ghost.”

I turn my head slightly, looking up at Locke’s sharp, rigid profile illuminated by the warm firelight.

“And then came the trap,” I say. “When I was twenty-three and Knox was twenty-seven.”

“What happened?”

“I was on my lunch break, just minding my own business, thinking about spreadsheets, when someone stepped out of a coffee shop right in front of me.”

Locke’s jaw twitches slightly. “Knox.”

“You know it,” I say, the memory still remarkably vivid in my mind. “I hadn’t seen him in almost two years because of the bitter club war, but there he stood in a dark leather jacket, looking bigger, stronger, and more devastatingly handsome than he’d ever been. He stopped right in my path, looked me dead in the eyes, and smiled.”

I pause, swallowing down the lingering bitterness of that moment.

“It wasn’t the dismissive smirk he used to give the kid at the clubhouse desk,” I say. “It was this slow, heavy, intense look that made my knees turn to absolute water right there on the sidewalk.”

“And?”

“And he invited me inside for coffee,” I say. “He was so charming, Locke. God, he was magnificent back then. He pulled out my chair, bought my drink, and sat across from me, listening to me talk like every single word coming out of my mouth was the most fascinating thing he’d ever heard in his life.”

Locke’s eyes narrow.

“He flirted like mad across that small wooden table,” I continue, tracing the edge of Locke’s wrist. “He touched my hand, looked into my eyes, and told me he couldn’t believe how much I’d grown up. He claimed he’d been thinking about me constantly over the years, that he was sick of the club bullshit and the endless fighting, and that seeing me felt like a breath of fresh air.”

I close my eyes for a beat, pausing as the sting of how thoroughly I was fooled washes over me all over again.

“He made me feel like the center of his universe,” I whisper. “I was so fucking stupid.”

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Duple 13+