The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 174

For a man like Rhys, logic always superseded emotion.

He realized he had made a mistake, so he was proceeding step-by-step to make amends.

But feelings... once they are mixed with too much guilt and compensation, they spoil.

"Spare me," Simon scoffed. "Showing up late doesn't make him a hero—it just proves how bad it was before."

Clara smiled and didn't argue.

In the past, she couldn't understand why, after five years of trying to warm him, that ice king remained cold.

Later, she understood. Even if ice melts, it just becomes cold water.

It soaks your clothes, and if you're not careful, it gives you a fever.

Simon turned his head to look at her.

Over the past month, Clara had lost a lot of weight. Perhaps it was the pregnancy, but the look in her eyes had changed too.

"Seventeen days left," Simon said abruptly.

Clara stared at the river surface. "Yeah, almost there."

The mandatory cooling-off period before the divorce was finalized was thirty days.

Counting from the day they walked out of City Hall, half the time had already passed.

"I don't know who made this stupid rule," Simon leaned back against the bench, stretching his long legs. "Keeping people waiting a month is just giving them a chance to be rogues. Clara, what if he changes his mind when the time comes and refuses to go?"

It wasn't unheard of.

People agreed to sign, but then a single phone call could drag them away.

Clara was certain. "If he agreed to sign, he won't go back on his word."

"You still have that much faith in him?"

She corrected him, "Not faith in him, but faith in his 'principles.' Captain Huntington is all about responsibility."

Those principles wouldn't allow him to renege after signing.

Simon listened and sighed.

Riverside Boulevard.

Rhys sat in the driver's seat, the window rolled halfway down.

In his hand, he still clutched the receipt from the dessert shop, crumpling the thin thermal paper until it was wrinkled.

The shift change arrived, and Zachary returned to sit in the passenger seat.

"Rhys, you didn't eat again. Can your stomach handle that?"

Rhys stuffed the ball of paper into his pocket and said indifferently, "I'm fine."

"Back there in the restaurant..." Zachary hesitated but couldn't suppress his gossip instinct. "I saw that was your wife, right? What, did you guys fight again?"

Although he didn't know the specifics, the atmosphere around Rhys had been clearly off for days. He wasn't going home, sleeping in the dorms every night—it looked pretty pitiful.

"No fight," Rhys started the car. "She just doesn't like caramel pudding anymore."

Zachary was confused. "What? Caramel pudding?"

"Yeah. She doesn't love it anymore."