The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 344

Ungrateful 

MARY’S POV: 

The gesture was meant to hide my expression, to give myself a moment to compose my thoughts. But the moment my palm touched my skin, something in me cracked and surprisingly, I didn’t even have the energy to be heartbroken anymore. 

I was exhausted and I kept my hand over my face and breathed. In, out, in and out. 

The car was quiet once again and Marl didn’t speak. He didn’t reach for me. He didn’t offer any empty platitudes or useless comfort. He just sat there, his hands on the steering wheel, his eyes on the road ahead, giving me the space I needed to fall apart. 

The silence stretched between us, long and heavy, filled with everything I couldn’t say. 

When I finally lowered my hand, my face was wet. I hadn’t noticed the tears falling. They had just come, the way rain comes, without warning or permission. 

“Sorry,” I whispered. 

“You have nothing to apologize for.” 

“I’m crying in your car and in your coat. I probably look insane.” 

He glanced at me, and something flickered across his face which might have been sympathy, or understanding. 

“You look like someone who’s been through hell,” he said. “There’s nothing insane about that.” 

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and looked out the window. The house was still dark. The porch light was still on. Somewhere inside, my daughter’s toys were scattered across the living room floor, and my husband’s shoes were still by the front door, and my life was waiting for me to come back to it. 

But I didn’t want to go back. 

I wanted to stay here, in this car, with this stranger who had seen me at my worst and hadn’t looked away. 

The same little touches that make people feel welcome. And those special dinners he likes to show off?” He shook his head. “I know he doesn’t have the skills to pull any of that off himself. The man can barely boil water.” 

A surprised laugh escaped me. I hadn’t meant to laugh. I hadn’t thought I was capable of laughter anymore. But there it was, small and rusty, like a door that hadn’t been opened in years. 

“Once I found out he was married,” Marl continued, “it wasn’t hard to figure out who was really behind it all. The parties. The dinners. The way his house always looked perfect even though he never lifted a finger.” He shrugged. “I’m not an idiot. I put two and two together.” 

I stared at him. 

No one had ever acknowledged my efforts before. Not Alistair, who took them for granted and even me, most days. I had told myself that what I did didn’t matter, that anyone could do it, that I wasn’t special. 

But here was a stranger, a man who had no reason to flatter me, no reason to be kind, telling me that he had noticed. That he had seen the work I put in, the love I poured into every detail, the pieces of myself I had given to a man who never thanked me for them. 

His words caught me off guard.