The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 114

What should have been a ten-minute drive dragged on for nearly an hour.

Clara’s palms were slick with sweat as she mentally rehearsed the scene she was about to face over and over again.

The hotel lobby wasn't crowded. Clara walked up to the front desk.

"Hello, please check which room Rhys is in."

The receptionist maintained a professional smile, looking Clara up and down. "I'm sorry, ma'am, we cannot disclose guest privacy."

"I am his wife. I can't reach him, and there is an emergency at home."

The suspicion in the receptionist's eyes deepened.

Rhys’s face was somewhat well-known in Brighton City, especially after that "Most Handsome Officer" trend a while back. Coupled with his outstanding aura, the receptionist had taken several extra glances when he checked in.

But the woman he had just brought in...

The receptionist remembered clearly that the woman needed Rhys’s arm around her to walk steadily. The way Rhys looked at her was full of tension and concern.

The lady in front of her, claiming to be the "wife," was beautiful, but she didn't look like the main character in this story.

"I am very sorry."

The receptionist lowered her head, pretending to check the computer. "There is no check-in information for a gentleman by that name in our system. You might try calling his cell phone."

Clara didn't argue further. She turned and walked toward the elevators.

"Ma'am, visitors need to swipe a card to go upstairs..." the lobby manager tried to intervene.

"I'm not going up." Clara pointed to the emergency exit sign nearby. "I'm going to the parking garage."

If Emily said he was here, she would find the car first.

As long as she photographed his car parked here, and then obtained the surveillance footage from the parking lot proving he entered the hotel with Margot, it would be enough.

The underground garage was much colder than the lobby. Finding one car in such a vast space wasn't easy.

Clara wrapped her coat tighter and searched row by row.

Zone A, nothing.

Zone B, nothing.

Her legs felt weak. With every step, the panic in her heart grew heavier.

Part of her hoped she wouldn't find it.

She thought that as long as he didn't sign the papers, this marriage was at least legally and morally clean.

Perhaps in his eyes, his so-called "principles" were only ever meant to constrain her, his wife.

For the people he actually cared about, principles could be broken at any time.

The vehicle in front of her was just one more blow to her already crumbling world.

A sudden, sharp pain shot up from her lower abdomen.

It wasn't just her stomach.

The pain was strange and terrifying. Clara let out a muffled groan and leaned against a nearby concrete pillar.

Clutching her belly, she slowly slid down the pillar into a crouch, trying to call Simon.

It hurt.

It hurt so much her vision went black. The lights in the parking garage seemed to pulse in and out, and her ears were filled with a buzzing sound.

The call connected, but she couldn't hear a voice, nor could she speak.

Through her blurred vision, she saw the elevator doors not far away slide open.