I Was His Wife, Then His Widow, Then No One's But My Own novel Chapter 286

And she had obliviously played along with his sick game for five agonizing years.

Nora shook her head, violently throwing the memories out of her mind as a bitter taste pooled in her mouth. "Why the sudden interest in my past, Mr. Harrison? Don't tell me—"

Before she could finish, Xander smoothly averted his gaze. "I've never experienced love, dating, or marriage. I was just a little curious."

Nora was completely stunned.

She stared at him, trying to gauge if he was joking. Never experienced it? Then how did he have a daughter?

Her mouth fell open. "You've never experienced any of that? Then where did Bonnie come from?"

Xander pulled his gaze away from the window and offered a light chuckle. "I can't talk about Bonnie right now. When the time is right, I'll explain everything."

Nora pressed her lips together.

She didn't push the issue. If he didn't want to talk about it, he clearly had his reasons.

She wasn't the type to ruthlessly dig into people's private lives, especially when they clearly wanted the door kept shut.

She flashed a polite smile, picking up a fork and knife to hand to him. "Let's just focus on eating then. We both have a lot of work to get back to this afternoon."

Xander accepted the silverware, the faint, signature smile returning to his lips.

Neither of them mentioned Finnegan for the rest of the meal. Once they finished eating, Xander called a car to take her back to the hospital.

Just as she was about to step out, he rolled down the window and offered a rare bit of genuine concern. "Don't push yourself too hard today."

Standing by the hospital entrance, Nora waved back at him, a sudden trace of warmth wrapping around her heart.

The afternoon shift kicked off right at two o'clock.

Nora led her team through the initial sorting and tagging of the morning samples before sending them into the lab for the first round of testing.

The sudden memory of her sweet, soft voice calling him 'Finn' made something deep and restless stir violently in his gut.

He shoved the envelope toward her. "Take a look at this."

Nora frowned, but took the file anyway. Tearing it open, her scowl deepened drastically.

"Frederick, what is the meaning of this?"

Finnegan let out a heavy breath before dropping his calculated bombshell. "I think Finn might still be alive."

Nora looked at the man standing in front of her, finding his intricate web of lies completely absurd.

If she hadn't overheard that devastating conversation, receiving news like this would have made her delirious with joy.

But now, she simply let out a dry, hollow laugh and took a calm step backward. "Frederick, isn't this completely absurd?"