The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 29

Chapter 26-1

Zara

By the time I leave the clubhouse, my body feels hollowed out by numbers.

Clam

Locke and I spent eight hours hunched over accounts, company names, transfers, dates, properties, every ugly little thread Knox had tied to me without permission. By five o’clock my head was full of routing numbers and shell corporations, while my side ached badly enough that Locke had finally stopped asking if I was okay, and started looking at me like he was one bad answer away from carrying me out himself.

I should be terrified by everything that we uncovered, and part of me definitely is. But beneath the fear, beneath the anger, there’s something else now.

Direction.

For the first time, Knox doesn’t feel like a shadow I’m trying to outrun, he feels like a man with weaknesses

and we’re starting to find them.

By the time I reach my building, all I want is a glass of wine, a salad that I probably won’t finish, and enough hot water on my skin to wash away the day.

Then I see him. Knox is waiting outside my building.

The sight of him stops me cold, and for one second, my mind refuses to understand what my eyes are telling it. Knox belongs in other places: the house I left, the clubhouse I refused to return to, the cold, polished rooms where he liked everything controlled and silent and arranged around him.

Not here. Not outside my apartment. Not at the one place that was supposed to be mine.

The exhaustion of the day evaporates instantly, and so does the small, fragile optimism that I’d been carrying home with me.

Knox glares at me. “About fucking time.”

My fingers tighten around my bag strap. “How did you find me?”

He smiles, but there’s no warmth in it. “You’re still my wife.”

The words make my stomach turn. “We both know that’s not true, so you can just leave.”

“We need to talk.”

“No. We don’t.”

He ignores me. “I spent half the day yesterday dealing with your goddamn father.”

I stare at him. “And?”

“And?” he repeats. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“About what?”

“About the fact that he’s cut all business ties to my club.”

Chapter 26.

What exactly were you expecting him to do?”

Clas

His eyes narrow. “Your father knows how this world works, he knows what’s at stake. He knows how much money moves through my businesses. He knows what happens if people start pulling at threads they don’t understand.”

I fold my arms. “And yet, he turned down the great Knox McVale.”

His expression darkens immediately, and there it is, the real problem. Knox genuinely thought that my father would side with him, because he assumed business and money would matter more than I did.

“So,” I say, tossing my hair. “You thought Dad would make me sign your bullshit terms.”

A muscle jumps in his jaw. “I thought he’d be reasonable.”

I laugh. “Reasonable? Are you actually accusing someone else of being unreasonable?”

Knox looks at me like I’ve become someone very difficult, someone disappointing. “You should have signed the agreement.”

“The agreement where I stay married to you while you keep using my name?”

His eyes harden. “The agreement where you walk away safe.”

“The agreement where you continue committing fraud?”

“Jesus Christ, Zara.”

And suddenly I am just so fucking tired. Tired of the explanations, tired of the justifications, tired of being expected to understand.

“You know what I think?” I tell him. “I think you’ve spent so long getting your own way that you’ve forgotten what no sounds like.”

Something cold enters his expression. To be fair, I should probably stop there, but instead, I keep going.

“You’ve got Becca, you’ve got a baby on the way. You made your choice, Knox, OK? You wanted her and now you’ve got her. You should be worrying about all of that.” gesture vaguely between us. “Not me. Not this.”

The silence that follows feels dangerous, because Knox doesn’t like being dismissed, doesn’t like being told what to do, doesn’t like women deciding conversations are over. And most of all, he doesn’t like being reminded that his choices have consequences.

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