The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 540

Chapter 266-1

+25 Points

The glow of the open refrigerator casts a stark, surgical blue light across the kitchen counters. I stand in my socks, staring into the cold depth of the top shelf, my hands resting

on my lower back, trying to massage out the persistent ache.

“I should want the spinach,” I say to her into the chill of the open fridge. “Or the healthy, sensible Tupperware of steamed broccoli and brown rice that Willow sent over.”

Xena tilts her head, her dark eyes entirely unpersuaded.

I sigh, leaning my forehead against the edge of the refrigerator door for a second. My lower back is a dull, radiating fire after the day I’ve had.

Between the tense, hushed meeting with the Irregulars in Dad’s office, the terrifying reality of the shadow crew carving up the city, and my showdown with Detective Miller out by the dumpster, every nerve in my body feels frayed to a thin wire.

My body is exhausted, but my mind is spinning, trapped in a loop of dark street rumors and the quiet, terrible question Sly left hanging in the air.

I close the fridge with a soft thud, slumping back against the counter.

I don’t want salad. I don’t want steamed vegetables.

I want greasy, salty carb–heavy comfort food eaten off a paper plate while sitting on the floor and mindlessly scrolling i********

My phone vibrates on the counter beside me. The sudden, buzzing rattle makes me jump, my heart leaping into my throat before I even look at the screen.

When I pick it up, his name is lit up across the glass.

Locke.

I take a slow, steadying breath, pressing my hand over my heart to calm the sudden, fluttery spike of heat in my chest.

I swipe the screen and press the phone to my ear. “Locke?”

“Zara.”

His voice is low, dark with a bone–deep frustration that makes my chest tighten instantly.

14

“I’ve been standing in the doorway for alimony thirty minutes, Zara,” he says. “The paint cans are sitting on the tarp. Half the wall is a soft sage green, and half of it is still bare white primer. The accent trim is taped off for gold, but I haven’t even opened the tin.”

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