The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 364

Rhys denied it. "I never intended to buy my way out of anything. I didn't want a divorce, but at the time..."

"At the time, you needed to take care of Margot."

At the mention of her name, Rhys's expression darkened.

"It was then that I found out she had been lying to me all along."

Clara was confused. "What could she have lied to you about?"

"Margot hates me," Rhys said, the words coming with difficulty. "You've met her. You should know that the reason she's like this is because... because I caused the car accident when we were kids."

Remembering the long scar on Margot's chest, Clara said, "Yes, she told me."

Rhys continued, "She wanted to see me suffer. She wanted me to be abandoned by everyone, to make sure everyone around me was miserable. She targeted you not because she disliked you personally. No matter who I was with, the outcome would have been the same."

"Faking sickness to call me away, sending you those texts on purpose, intentionally causing misunderstandings... she would do anything to make us miserable."

Clara's brow furrowed as she listened, feeling lost in the tangled story.

"I don't get it. If she wanted revenge on you, why not just stab you? Wouldn't that be more direct?"

"Because..."

Every time he thought of Margot's words, a chill still ran down Rhys's spine. It had taken him a long time to process that twisted affection, and he didn't know how to explain it.

She wouldn't allow him to have another family, wouldn't allow him to even look at anyone else.

Margot hated him for ruining her life, but she was also terrified that if he left, no one would care if she lived or died.

"Because she needs me alive, and she needs me looking only at her."

A dead silence fell over the room.

Clara finally understood. She had just been an unlucky casualty.

Margot hadn't been willing to plunge the knife into Rhys, so she had stabbed her first.

Rhys wasn't sure if he had explained it clearly. Seeing the color drain from her face, the pain in his chest intensified.

"I'm not going to make excuses," he said. "Clara, I know that anything I say right now sounds like a weak justification. Regardless of the cause, the result is that I lost you. I wasn't smart enough to see through her games, and I didn't protect you. I deserve this."

But the Clara of today had a career, a child, friends, countless suitors, and a perfect "fiancé."

She didn't need him at all.

Rhys had never felt so defeated in his life.

"You don't have to forgive me, and you don't have to smile at me. Just don't push me away. Let me stay somewhere you can see me, and let me pursue you all over again."

"What?"

"Pursue you," Rhys said, his tone frank and direct.

"You were the one who pursued me before. You chased me so hard and got so hurt. Now it's my turn to pursue you. We can start from the beginning. I'll make up for every bit of pain you went through."

"Are you insane?" Clara cursed at him. "You're a special police officer now. Your face is on public service posters all over the city. Don't act like some shameless scoundrel."

"What good is any of that?" Rhys gave a bitter smile. "I can protect the whole city, but I couldn't protect you."

His strength gave out. He leaned back against the headboard, breathing heavily. "If being a scoundrel is what it takes to make you look at me again, then I don't want to be a hero for the rest of my life."