The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 106

"Okay, okay, I won't mention him. Just eat," her mother said, thinking it was just a lovers' spat and trying to smooth things over. "I'll give him a call later and scold him. A grown man like that, doesn't even know how to take care of his wife."

"Don't call him," Clara put down the fork. "I want a divorce."

Silence filled the room.

"Clara, what did you say?" Her father turned off the TV, his brow furrowed deeply. "It's the holidays. We don't make jokes like that. It hurts feelings."

"It's not a joke." Clara looked up. Her eyes were dry and stinging; she had no tears left. "I signed the papers and left them for him. I'm serious."

"Why?" Her mother panicked. "Is he treating you badly? Is there someone else?"

Clara shook her head.

Rhys hadn't physically cheated, to her knowledge. He didn't abuse her. He provided for everything and never questioned her spending. In everyone's eyes, he was the perfect Captain Huntington. The things that tormented her were, in isolation, trivial. Saying them out loud would only make her sound petty, oversensitive, and unreasonable.

"I'm just tired," Clara said. "Five years. Every day I watch his moods, guess what he's thinking. I used to believe that if I was good enough to him, he'd eventually be moved. But I've realized now... if he doesn't love me, he doesn't love me."

"...No matter what I do, I'm not in his heart."

A mother knows her daughter best.

Clara had always been strong-willed. When she was chasing Rhys back in the day, she wouldn't turn back even after hitting a brick wall. Even when Rhys ignored her, she would cheerfully find a way to laugh it off. Her parents had seen how much she loved him.

If she hadn't suffered an immense grievance, if her heart hadn't turned completely cold, she would never have uttered the word "divorce."

Her mother's eyes reddened. She didn't ask for details. She turned and walked toward the kitchen.

"That soup is getting cold. I'll make you a fresh bowl."

The sound of the extractor fan whirred to life in the kitchen, masking the sound of her mother's suppressed sobs.

Her father looked at his daughter in silence.

Clara had been raised with love, a lively, spirited girl. But the woman sitting here now was listless, her eyes grey and dull.

"If you want a divorce, then divorce him."

After a long silence, her father spoke in a low, steady voice.

"From the start, I thought the gap was too wide. The Huntington family... their threshold is too high, and that boy is too deep, too complicated. You couldn't handle him. But you wouldn't listen. What did I tell you?"

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