The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 449

Clara handed a slice of mango to Felix and glanced at her phone.

No new messages.

She didn't know what was happening at the cemetery, but knowing Rhys's meticulous nature, she figured he wouldn't leave until the entire ceremony was over and everyone else had departed.

Two knocks sounded at the front door. Before Clara could get up, Felix had already run to it.

"I'll get it!"

The lock clicked open, and Rhys was standing outside.

He had taken off his black overcoat and had it draped over his arm, leaving him in just his black suit.

"Daddy!" Felix cried happily, lunging for him.

Rhys quickly freed a hand to steady his son. His expression softened instinctively at the sight of Felix's smiling face, but he was afraid of being too cold and didn't dare to hug him too tightly.

Clara stood up, surprised.

She had thought it would be hours before he was done.

"It's over already?"

She took the overcoat from him, patting the snowflakes off before hanging it on the coat rack by the door. Then she retrieved a pair of cotton slippers from the shoe cabinet and placed them at his feet.

"Yeah, the main proceedings were finished. I didn't have anything else to do, so I left."

Rhys watched her hang up the coat but hesitated to step inside.

He stood on the threshold, his fingers unconsciously clenching at his side.

This was the Jensens' house, Clara's parents' home. It wasn't the Riverside Court apartment where it was just the three of them.

In the seconds before he knocked, all he could think about was the time four years ago when he had been turned away at this very door.

His stubbornness back then had caused Clara so much pain and had made the Jensens worry sick as they watched their daughter suffer. He hadn't even been there for her when she was in the most danger.

He had mentally prepared himself for cutting remarks or a slammed door.

Clara's dad peeked out from the balcony, squinting toward the doorway, and called out, "Rhys, you're back! Come in, what are you standing there for?"

Clara sat down beside him and pushed a glass of hot water in his direction.

"Did you take your medicine?"

"I did, right on time."

"Good."

Clara didn't ask any more questions. Seeing the fatigue on his face, she knew that dealing with everything today must have taken a lot out of him.

Those people and those matters belonged at the cemetery.

They had no place in this house.

Clara's mom went back to the kitchen, where a pot of pork rib soup was simmering in a clay pot, its rich aroma seeping through the door and filling the entire house.

Rhys took a sip of the hot water, and the chill that had seeped into his bones at the cemetery finally began to recede.

Clara's dad tapped a chess piece on the board. "Rhys, come teach your son. This little rascal is just making a mess, he took my king."