The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 239

The Hard Choice 

ELIJAH’S POV: 

Not because I had proof yet. But because I understood how men like that operated and I understood timing and the timing of this was not coincidence. We had started pulling on his thread. Kojo had been digging. The lawyer had been reviewing the folder. Someone in his network had noticed and this was the response. Not a direct attack on Hannah, because that had already been tried. A flanking move. Go after the husband. Destabilize the family from a different angle. Make him the problem so she has to deal with him instead of the collection and the legal case. 

It was actually a reasonably smart play. Which made me more angry, not less. 

My phone rang at seven fifteen. It was my board chairman, a man named Prentiss who had been in his position for twelve years and who communicated in a style that was always calm on the surface and rarely calm underneath it. When he called at seven fifteen on a Tuesday morning I knew before I answered what kind of call it was going to be. 

“I have seen the article,” I said when I picked up. 

“Good,” he said. “Then we do not have to spend time on that part. Where are we, Elijah?” 

“Kelloway was six years ago and it was legal,” I said. “The ethics of it are something I am prepared to address openly. I am not going to pretend it was my finest hour because it was not. But there is nothing criminal in that deal and any lawyer worth their f*e will confirm that within forty-eight hours.” 

“I am not worried about the legal side,” Prentiss said. “I am worried about the narrative. The story asks questions it does not answer and that is always the kind of story that gets shared most widely. People read the headline and the questions and they fill in their own answers.” 

“I know,” I said. 

“The board is going to want to meet.” 

“Schedule it for tomorrow afternoon,” I said. “I will be there in person. I will have the full documentation on Kelloway ready and I will walk them through every part of it.” 

I do not know exactly why. I was not thinking about it consciously. My body just moved in that direction the way it used to move in that direction years ago when things got heavy and the instinct was still living in my muscles even though I had worked hard and for a long time to override it. I opened the cabinet. There was a bottle of whiskey on the second shelf, the good ones. I had not thought about it being there because I had not needed to think about it. 

I stood there with my hand on the bottle. 

The kitchen was still. Hannah and the twins were upstairs. My phone was ringing again on the counter behind me. The story was out in the world and my board was panicking and my name was in a headline that was asking questions about who I used to be. 

I stood there for a long moment. 

And then I put the bottle down, very carefully, and I closed the cabinet door, and I walked away from it. 

I picked up my phone and I called Jacob.