The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 93

Chapter 60-1

For several seconds after Locke leaves, nobody moves.

Crani

Dad stands near the desk with one hand braced against its surface, Mayhem stares at the floor as though he might find a better version of himself there, and Jade keeps holding my hand with both of hers.

I should stay. I know that.”

I should sit down, breathe, let the anger settle, wait for Locke to come back when he has finished walking off whatever part of our argument he couldn’t bear to carry in front of everyone else. We should talk like adults. Like partners. Like two people who’ve spent weeks proving that difficult things don’t have to become destructive things.

Instead, I pull my hand free from Jade’s and walk toward the door

“Zara,” Dad says.

“I need to talk to him.”

Nobody argues with that, maybe because they all know I’m right.

Or maybe because, after the last fifteen minutes, they’re finally afraid to tell me what I’m allowed to do.

The hallway outside the office is empty, and the clubhouse beyond it is quieter than usual, the bar subdued by whatever expression Locke must have worn when he came through earlier. A few men look up as I pass, then quickly look away, instinctively recognizing that I am one wrong word away from becoming somebody else’s problem.

I shove open the front door and step into the cooling evening air.

The parking lot is half full. Dad’s bike. Mayhem’s bike. Jade’s SUV. A row of club motorcycles along the fence.

Locke’s space is empty.

For a few seconds, I simply stare at it, my mind refusing to understand what my eyes are telling it.

Then I look toward the gate. Toward the road. Toward every direction he might have gone.

Nothing.

He’s gone. Just – gone. No message, no word, no quiet promise that he’ll come back when he can talk without making things worse.

Something cold moves through me first, then hot, then so fucking furious that I almost laugh.

Of course.

Of course the man who’s spent weeks telling me he stays, the man who sat beside me through chemotherapy and held my hair while I was sick and wrapped his entire life around the idea that I should never feel alone again, chooses this moment to disappear.

The first time I truly challenge him. The first time I tell him no. The first time I refuse to let his protection

1:3

Chapter 60

become my cage.

He fucking leaves.

Clam

I stand in the middle of the parking lot with my arms folded tightly across my chest, trying to be reasonable, trying to tell myself that he needed space. That he was angry, and that people are allowed to walk away from an argument before saying something unforgivable.

All of that is true, and also, none of it helps…because he didn’t say he needed space.

He didn’t say anything. He made a decision about what he needed, acted on it without asking, and vanished.

Locke is yet another man deciding a conversation is over because he says it is.

The comparison to Knox is unfair, I know that. But truly don’t give a shit.

I turn back toward the clubhouse, but the thought of walking inside and facing all those worried eyes makes my skin crawl. They’ll ask where Locke went, and if I’m okay. Dad will want me to sit down, Mayhem will insist somebody drive me home, Jade will apologize again. Everyone will surround me with love until there is no oxygen left in the room.

I can’t do it. I can’t listen to one more person tell me what’s sensible, safe, best for me.

Not tonight. Please God, not tonight.

My car keys are still with Mayhem, so I go back inside, find him standing exactly where I left him, and hold out my palm.

He looks at it, then at me. “What are you doing?”

“I want my keys.”

“Zara.”

“Mayhem.”

Something in my face stops him. He hesitates, then reaches into his jeans pocket and places the keys in my hand.

“Call me if you need anything,” he says.

“I will.”

Dad steps forward. “Sweetheart -”

“I’m not ready to talk yet. Not to any of you.”

I turn and leave before anybody can say anything.

To be fair, I know that what I’m doing is reckless before I even reach my car. Driving off alone after Knox ambushed me is exactly the kind of decision everyone was trying to prevent. I know the sensible thing would be to go to the penthouse, where there are cameras, security, a private elevator and enough locks to satisfy a paranoid monarch.

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Chapter 604

But Locke’s penthouse is the last place that I want to be.

His books. His clothes. His coffee mug beside mine. Every room filled with the quiet evidence of how quickly I started believing I belonged there.

Nope. Not tonight.

I get into the car and lock the doors immediately, then sit with both hands gripping the steering wheel while anger thrums through me in sharp, bright waves, and I try to decide where the hell to go.

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