The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 380

The Cruel Deception

MARY’S POV:

I stood still in the doorway of the bedroom, my arms wrapped tight across my chest, trying to stop my body from trembling. The towel had been tossed onto the floor, replaced by a fresh change of clothes that felt completely wrong against my skin. My hair was still wet, dripping small cold drops down my neck and making the fabric of my shirt stick to my shoulders. I had not even finished showering before everything blew up again. The whole house felt cold, but the chill inside me was much worse.

Alistair was standing in the bathroom with his back turned to me, holding his phone tightly against his ear. His voice was low, fast, and full of a strained pressure he was trying hard to hide. I could not pick out every single word he was saying, but I recognized the tone. It was the voice he used when a business deal was falling apart and he was trying to pretend he had everything under control. His shoulders were pulled up stiff, and his left hand was clenched so hard into a fist that his knuckles looked white. He wanted to sound cool and professional, but if you knew him like I did, you could hear the subtle cracks in his confidence.

I stayed where I was and waited.

Over the course of our marriage, waiting had become second nature to me. I had learned how to stand quietly in corners, how to hold my breath, and how to count the seconds until whatever mood he was in finally passed. I had turned myself into a patient person, a wife who did not raise her voice, did not ask uncomfortable questions, and did not demand things he was not willing to give. I used to think that was what strength looked like.

Looking at him now, I realized I was done waiting.

Alistair finally pulled the phone away from his ear, tapped the screen to end the call, and turned around to face me and walk over to me. Right away, he slid into that calm, blank expression he always used when he was hiding something. It was a mask I had seen a thousand times. I knew every tiny flaw in it. I knew the slight twitch near the corner of his mouth when he was under pressure, the way his eyes shifted to the wall behind me instead of meeting my gaze, and the tight knot in his jaw that gave away how stressed he really was.

“Vesper…” he started to say.

I did not let him finish.

“If you are about to tell me Vesper needs your help again and that is why you want me to come along,” I said, keeping my voice as flat and icy as I could manage, “I swear I will go straight to the bookshelf, take down our wedding photo frame, the one where you secretly put her picture inside, and smash it right into your face.”

“That was years ago,” he said quickly, his voice dropping into a tense murmur. “It was an old mistake.”

“I do not care how long ago it was,” I said. “The fact that you did it at all tells me everything I ever needed to know about you.”

Alistair shook his head, reaching up to rub the back of his neck with one heavy hand. It was a habit of his. Whenever he ran out of excuses, whenever he got backed into a corner and needed a few extra seconds to think of a believable story, he would reach up and rub his neck just like that.

“That is not even what I was going to say,” he said, exhaling a rough breath. “Vesper does not have anything to do with this call. It was about my mother. She was rushed to the hospital a little while ago, and she asked to see both of us.”

I pulled back a little, my brow furrowing.