The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 74

"What's wrong?" Seeing her hesitate, Rhys frowned slightly. "You don't like the style?"

"No," Clara forced the corners of her mouth up. "It's fine."

She grabbed Rhys's hand and slid the ring onto his ring finger.

"If you take it off again this time, pawning it." Clara said flatly, letting go of his hand.

Rhys looked at the rings on their hands with satisfaction, automatically filtering out the thorns in her words.

"I won't."

He lay back on the bed, extended his long arm to scoop Clara into his embrace, and kissed her hair. "I start my leave tomorrow."

"Leave?"

"Yeah. I've accumulated a lot of time off. I'm off until the end of the Christmas holidays."

Rhys closed his eyes, patting her back rhythmically. "We can go wherever you want these next few days. If you find it too cold, we can go to Sunbay City after Boxing Day. Haven't you always wanted to go diving?"

Clara turned over, smiling silently.

She was never afraid of the cold.

It was the delicate damsel in distress who was afraid of the cold, needing to be kept in a warm seaside city.

...

Rhys was true to his word and started his vacation.

Maybe it was the wild night and the heavy thoughts weighing her down, Clara didn't wake up until noon.

Rhys wasn't in the bedroom. Faint voices came from the living room.

Clara went out and saw Rhys on the phone. Seeing her come down, he said "Okay" and hung up.

"Breakfast is warm in the pot. If you don't want that, get changed and we'll go out."

Clara glanced at the phone in his hand. "Who was that? Did you have to hide to take the call?"

" Questions about some case file handovers."

Clara didn't expose him.

"Where are we going?"

"The supermarket. The fridge is empty. We need to stock up on food and supplies for Christmas. Plus, we need to restock your favorite snacks."

An hour later, Clara stood in a crowded warehouse-style supermarket.

With Christmas approaching, the aisles were surging with people.

In his hands were two boxes of strawberries.

Identical packaging, identical quality, even the size of the fruit was about the same.

Clara stared at the two boxes of strawberries, her palms tightening around the cart handle.

"Why'd you buy so many?" she asked, trying to sound casual. "They won't last. They'll go bad in a couple of days."

Rhys was looking down at the cherries on the other side and didn't think much of it, replying casually, "This batch looks good. I'll take a box to Margot."

Clara didn't speak.

The noisy crowd around them seemed to fade away instantly, leaving only that matter-of-fact phrase ringing in her ears: "Take a box to Margot."

Perhaps in his life plan, she, Clara, and Margot were like these two boxes of strawberries—able to be placed side by side in his shopping cart.

Neither crushing the other, neither delaying the other.

As to whether one of the boxes felt crowded or disgusted, that wasn't within his scope of consideration.

Because he felt this was fair.

What you have, she has too.

This was his version of fairness.