The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 359

The Husband’s Investigation 

MARL’S POV: 

Her expression shifted. The openness I had seen when she walked through the door, the guarded hope, the fragile trust, hardened into something colder. More distant and more careful. 

“This is a professional meeting,” she said, and her voice was polite but firm. “It doesn’t require anyone else’s approval. It doesn’t need to take place under someone else’s supervision.” 

I felt the words land like a slap. 

She thought I was checking on her for Alistair. She thought I was reporting back to him, feeding him information, betraying her trust. 

I opened my mouth to correct her, to explain, to tell her that I was on her side, but the words wouldn’t come. 

What could I say? That I had pulled her out of a cell because I couldn’t stand to see her suffering? That I had driven her home and wrapped her in my coat because something about her made me want to protect her? That I had been thinking about her ever since, even though I knew I shouldn’t be? 

She wouldn’t believe me. She had no reason to. I was Alistair’s friend. I had known him for years. I had been at his parties, watched him with Vesper, done nothing to stop it. 

Why would she trust me? 

Sensing her wariness, I decided to leave. 

I stood up from the table, my chair scraping against the floor. Hotch looked up at me, confusion flickering across his face. 

“Where are you going?” he asked. 

“Something came up,” I said. “I’ll catch up with you later.” 

The thought settled into my chest like a stone. 

I had assumed she was here to ask Hotch to handle her divorce. Since she never brought it up, did that mean she still couldn’t let go of Alistair? Did that mean she was willing to forgive him, to give him another chance, to go back to the same life that had been slowly killing her? 

I didn’t know why it mattered. She wasn’t my wife. She wasn’t my responsibility. She was nothing to me but a distraction I couldn’t afford to mess with. 

And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. 

I pulled into my driveway and killed the engine. The house was dark, quiet, the way I always left it. I walked inside/ and closed the door behind me, the lock clicking into place. 

I was halfway to the kitchen when I saw him.