The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 382

The fingest b

The Biggest Lie

MARY’S POV:

+15 Bahus

The words did not sound right to me. I had lived with Alistair long enough, and watched him cover his tracks enough times, to know that believing him without proof was always a mistake. There was something in his voice, a strange note in the way he delivered the news, that made my stomach turn over.

“Who called you just now?” I asked him quietly. “You set up a special ringtone on your phone for urgent calls. Your mother never had a special ringtone. Your assistant does not have one either. The only person you ever assigned that specific ring tone to was…”

I trailed off as the full truth suddenly settled into my brain like a weight.

He had set up a custom ringtone for Vesper.

Of course he had. He had given her a direct, special chime on his phone so he would always know the second she needed him, placing her above everyone else without ever telling me. He gave her that level of attention and intimacy while I was sitting right beside him at the dinner table.

I had never had a special ringtone on his phone.

To him, I was just the background noise of his life. I was the default setting, the person he took for granted because he assumed I would always be there. The wife. The mother. The woman who stayed at home, waited up late, and cleaned up whatever mess he left behind, no matter how terribly he treated her.

I felt like such a fool.

Alistair let out another long sigh, his shoulders slumping down as if he were carrying a heavy sack. “It was the doctor calling from her phone, Mary. Look, I know you are furious with me, and I know you have every right to be upset about everything. But please trust me on this one thing. There is nothing happening between Vesper and me right now. You are my wife. You will always be my wife.”

Those words hit my chest like heavy rocks.

You are my wife. You will always be my wife.

He said it like he was offering me a gift. He said it like I ought to smile and be grateful that he still claimed me. He spoke as if being his wife was a rare privilege instead of a long prison sentence, as if I should be proud to hold the title of the woman he cheated on, the woman he left sitting in a cold police cell, and the woman he embarrassed in front of everyone we knew.

I wanted to scream at him until my throat went raw. I wanted to tear those words apart and throw them right back into his face. I wanted to tell him that being tied to him was the single worst thing that had ever happened to my life, and that I would rather spend the rest of my years completely alone than live another hour under his roof.

Instead, I took a deep breath, forced the anger back down into my throat, and let it burn quietly inside me. I had spent years learning how to push my feelings away, how to make my anger small and silent so it would not cause a scene. I knew how to bury it deep down in my chest where nobody could see it.

Except it was still there. It had been growing under the surface for a very long time, and now it was getting too big to hold.

“I will sit down and explain everything to you later,” Alistair said softly, keeping his eyes on mine. “Right now, can we please just go to the hospital? My mother is waiting, and she needs us there.”

I stared at his face for a long moment.

His mother, Beatrice, was one of the few people in his family who had ever been genuinely kind to me. The wa the one who had welcomed me with open arms when we first got together, who held my hand through the painful hours when Elowen was born, and who always spoke to me with real warmth. Even when her son started texting mry life to pieces, she had never spoken a harsh word to me.

I pictured Beatrice in my mind. I remembered the gentle way the used to look at me, her soft voice, and the way she had whispered words of comfort to me in the delivery room when I was terrified. She was a good woman, and she deserved far better than a son who lied, cheated, and broke every promise he ever made.

I was not going to the hospital for Alistair

I was going for the woman who had treated me like a daughter when nobody else in that house did if she was dek and did not have much time left, I owed it to her to be there.

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