Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore novel Chapter 104

Chapter 104

RIVERA

I stood in my study, staring at reports I’d read three times without absorbing a single word, and tried not to think about the look on Bianca’s face when I’d told her about Matthew.

The betrayal. The hurt. The exhaustion of being lied to by yet another man who claimed to care about her.

I’d had the perfect opportunity to tell her everything. About being the Alpha King, about the full extent of my deception, about every secret I’d been keeping.

But I’d seen how overwhelmed she was by the Matthew revelation alone, and I’d chosen–again–to hold back the complete

truth.

Coward.

Klaus’s voice echoed in my head: *Every day you don’t tell her is another day of deception she’ll have to process when the truth comes out.*

But Bianca had asked for space. Time to process what I’d already told her without adding more impossible revelations to the pile.

So I was giving her space. Giving her time.

Even though it felt like slowly dying.

My phone buzzed with a message from Klaus: *Security sweep complete. No signs of Thorne’s people near your property. Vera’s attackers seem to have retreated.*

I typed back: *For now. They’ll be back once they realize she survived.*

*Then we make sure they don’t find her. How’s Bianca?*

I stared at that question for a long moment before responding: *Processing. I told her about Matthew being here.*

*And?*

*And she’s hurt and angry and needs time. Which I’m giving her.*

*What about the other thing?*

He meant the Alpha King revelation. The one I still hadn’t shared.

*Later. She can only handle so many betrayals at once.*

Klaus’s response was immediate: *You’re making it worse by waiting.

I knew that. Knew it with absolute certainty. But I also knew Blanca was at her breaking point, and adding one more massive secret right now would be cruel

So I’d wait. Give her space. Let her process Matthew and Theo before I added the Alpha King complication.

It was probably the wrong choice. But it was the only one I could make right now without feeling like I was actively breaking her

I turned my attention back to the reports Elijah had compiled–security assessments, potential threats, updates on Marcus Thorne’s movements over the past week.

Thorne had been unusually quiet. Too quiet. No meetings with known associates, no suspicious financial activity, no contact with the dark magic practitioners we’d identified as his probable network.

Chapter 104

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“He knows we’re watching,” I’d told Elijah yesterday. “He’s laying low until he thinks the heat has passed.”

“Or he’s planning something bigger,” Elijah had countered. “Something that requires careful preparation.”

Neither option was comforting.

I spent the next few hours coordinating with my team–Klaus handling the political angles, Elijah managing security, Mikael tracking financial trails that might connect Thorne to illegal activities, Roy documenting everything for the eventual case we’d build.

By two–thirty, I realized I needed to pick up Louis from school. Normally Bianca handled afternoon pickup, but she was still with Vera, and I wasn’t going to ask her to break from medical care to handle my parenting responsibilities.

I grabbed my keys and headed out, nodding to the guards stationed around the property. They’d been increased since Vera’s arrival, a visible reminder that we were under threat.

The drive to Louis’s school was familiar, peaceful. I’d done this run hundreds of times in the past five years, though usually only when Louis’s mother had been too sick to manage it herself.

Now I was doing it because Bianca needed space. Because I’d screwed up so badly that the woman I loved could barely look at me.

I parked in the pickup area and waited, watching parents gather to collect their children. Mothers mostly, some fathers, all of them comfortable in their routine.

Louis emerged at 2:45, his backpack nearly as large as he was, his face lighting up when he saw my car.

Then his expression shifted to confusion as he climbed into the back seat.

“Where’s Mummy?” he asked immediately.

“She’s still taking care of the lady who was hurt,” I explained, pulling out of the parking lot. “Vera needs a lot of medical attention right now, so Mummy asked me to pick you up today.”

Louis’s face fell. “Is Mummy mad at us?”

The question hit harder than it should have. “No, buddy. Why would you think that?”

“Because she didn’t tuck me in last night and she’s not here today and you look sad.” His five–year–old logic was devastatingly accurate. “Did we do something wrong?”

“No.” I caught his eyes in the rearview mirror. “Louis, Mummy’s not mad at you. She’s just very busy helping someone who needs her. That’s what doctors do–they take care of people even when it’s hard.”

“But she still loves us?”

“She absolutely still loves us,” I said, hoping it was true. Hoping I hadn’t destroyed what we’d built through my stupidity and

Lear

Louis seemed to accept this, though he remained quieter than usual as I drove.

“Hey,” I said, making a decision. “How about we stop for ice cream before we go home? Just you and me

His face brightened immediately. “Really? Even though it’s a school day?”

“Even though it’s a school day. Sometimes we need ice cream for no reason other than we want it

“That’s the best kind of reason!” Louis was already bouncing in his seat with renewed enthusiasm

I pulled into the parking lot of Bella’s Ice Cream, the local shop that Louis had deemed “the best ice cream in the whole entire world” during our first visit months ago.

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