The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 92

Chapter 59-2

“It’s exactly what you’re doing.”

“We’re protecting you.”

“Protection without choice is fucking control, Dad. And I got enough of that bullshit in my marriage, thank you.”

The words cut through the office, and nobody speaks. Locke’s hand drops from the back of my chair, his face unreadable.

That should probably stop me, but it doesn’t… because he’s the one that I’m angriest with. Not because he’s done the most, or the worst, but because I expected better from him.

I got to my feet now, and face him. “You said we make decisions together.”

“We do.”

“No. We did. Until you got all protective and alpha asshole.”

His jaw tightens. “I saw the bruises he put on you. Twice.”

“I know.”

“He’s stalking you, Zara. He knows where you work, where you shop, where you live.”

“Again, I know.”

“Then why the fuck are you fighting me?”

“Because you aren’t fighting for me right now. You’re fighting around me.”

The words hit him, hard, but I’m too angry now to soften them, to stop talking.

“You decided that I’m not going to the garage tomorrow,” I tell him. “You decided you’re moving my medical appointments. You decided that you’ll be with me every second of every day. Did you ask me any of that?”

“No.”

His honesty comes immediately, and it makes the anger burn hotter.

“Why not?” I demand.

“Because keeping you alive matters more than whether you’re fucking pissed at me.”

I stare at him, and there it is. The first real fracture between us.

This isn’t a teasing disagreement, or even a semi-serious negotiation. This is a wall. He’s on one side, and I’m on the other.

“You don’t get to unilaterally make decisions for me, Locke.”

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Chapter 592

His cyes flash. “I just did.”

“You don’t get to protect me so much that I just – just disappear inside it. You don’t get to erase me.” The silence after that is brutal.

Jade lowers her eyes, Mayhem looks away, Dad closes his mouth on whatever he was about to say. But Locke doesn’t move at all.

I can see the words working through him, forcing their way beneath instinct and rage, and the need to keep me somewhere no one can reach.

His voice is quieter when he finally speaks. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“I think you’re angry enough at Knox that you’ve stopped seeing the difference between caring for me, and controlling me.”

He looks down at the bruises forming on my arm. “So tell me the difference.”

“The difference is asking me,” I say. “The difference is trusting me to understand the danger and still have

a voice. The difference is saying, ‘Here’s what I think we should do,’ instead of deciding that my life

belongs to everyone in this room because Knox touched me.”

Dad exhales slowly. “Sweetheart

”

I hold up one hand. “No, Dad. I’m not done talking.”

He falls silent, and that, more than anything, tells me they’re finally listening.

“I’ll agree to an escort,” I say. “I’ll share my location. I’ll call when I arrive and when I leave. I’ll agree to extra security at the penthouse and the clubhouse.”

Mayhem opens his mouth. I look at him. He closes it again.

“But I’m going back to the garage tomorrow if I feel well enough. I’m keeping my appointments where they are unless there’s a specific threat. And nobody puts anything on my phone without my permission.”

Dad studies me for a long moment, then nods. “Okay. Fair.”

Mayhem looks unhappy, Jade looks close to tears, Locke looks furious. He steps away from the chair and moves toward the door.

“Locke,” I say.

He stops with his hand on the knob, doesn’t turn to look at me. “I need some air.”

The door closes behind him with a quiet click that feels far louder than Mayhem punching the wall earlier

Nobody speaks, and I stare at the door and feel anger and guilt and fear twisting together inside me, until I can barely tell one from another.

Jade reaches for me again, then hesitates. This time, I take her hand.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers.

213

Claim

Chapter

know why you did it.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“No.”

Cas

Dad comes around the desk slowly. He looks older than he did an hour ago. “You were right. We stopped listening.”

Mayhem rubs both hands over his face. “I’m sorry, Zarabug.”

I nod because I’m not ready to speak, and my gaze returns to the door. To the space that Locke left

behind.

I wanted them to hear me, I needed them to hear me. They finally did.

Somehow, me finding my voice and speaking up for myself, turned into the first real argument between me

and Locke.

One that we maybe can’t come back from.

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