Share

Chapter 180

Author: A. Leilani
last update publish date: 2026-04-12 23:14:42

Chapter 180

Rivera POV

And I had sat across a kitchen table from a woman who wasn't Bianca and told myself I was tired.

My son had known in Silver Moon.

I'd known something was wrong tonight and had explained it away.

The wrongness I'd felt at the kitchen table—the absence of the particular gravity that existed between Bianca and me, the thing that was made of time and honesty and the specific history of two people who had seen each other clearly. The absence of the breathing-out sound when sh
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 181

    Chapter 181Rivera POV And I had sat across a kitchen table from a woman who wasn't Bianca and told myself I was tired.My son had known in Silver Moon.I'd known something was wrong tonight and had explained it away.The wrongness I'd felt at the kitchen table—the absence of the particular gravity that existed between Bianca and me, the thing that was made of time and honesty and the specific history of two people who had seen each other clearly. The absence of the breathing-out sound when she'd held Louis at the end of his bath.I hadn't known what I was feeling. Louis had known exactly what he was feeling and had named it with the precision of someone who'd been paying close attention to the right things.I put my hand on his shoulder. He was tense under it—the tension of a child who'd been carrying something too heavy for several days and was waiting to find out if the adult could take some of the weight."You did right," I said. "Telling me.""Is Mummy okay?" he asked.The quest

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 180

    Chapter 180Rivera POV And I had sat across a kitchen table from a woman who wasn't Bianca and told myself I was tired.My son had known in Silver Moon.I'd known something was wrong tonight and had explained it away.The wrongness I'd felt at the kitchen table—the absence of the particular gravity that existed between Bianca and me, the thing that was made of time and honesty and the specific history of two people who had seen each other clearly. The absence of the breathing-out sound when she'd held Louis at the end of his bath.I hadn't known what I was feeling. Louis had known exactly what he was feeling and had named it with the precision of someone who'd been paying close attention to the right things.I put my hand on his shoulder. He was tense under it—the tension of a child who'd been carrying something too heavy for several days and was waiting to find out if the adult could take some of the weight."You did right," I said. "Telling me.""Is Mummy okay?" he asked.The quest

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 179

    Chapter 179RIVERA He was awake.Not upset—not sitting up or distressed or reaching for me. Just lying on his back with his eyes open, looking at the ceiling in the particular way he had when he was thinking about something and had decided that the ceiling was the appropriate surface to think at.I came into the room and sat on the edge of his bed, the way I'd done hundreds of times across five years of nights. The mattress dipped slightly with my weight and he turned his head toward me."Hey," I said quietly."Hey." His voice was awake enough that I wondered how long he'd been lying there."Thought you were asleep.""I was thinking," he said."What about?"He was quiet for a moment. The particular quiet he used when he was choosing how to say something—finding the words that were closest to the thing he actually meant. He was careful about this. Had been since he was very small, had always seemed to understand that the gap between what you meant and what you said mattered."Daddy,"

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 178

    Chapter 178RIVERAWe came home to a house that smelled like itself.That was the first thing I noticed when I unlocked the front door and pushed it open—the particular smell of our home, which was a combination of Louis's things and Bianca's things and the specific quality of a space that had been lived in by specific people long enough that it held their presence even when they weren't in it. Coffee and the particular soap Bianca used and Louis's inexplicable preference for leaving his shoes directly in the path of anyone entering the house.Louis walked in past me and went immediately to check on the night watch, which he'd left in formation on his windowsill before we'd departed for Silver Moon and had apparently been thinking about at intervals throughout our time away. I heard him on the stairs, his footsteps quick with purpose.I set down the bags.The house was quiet in the way houses were quiet when you returned to them after time away—not empty, but waiting. The specific hus

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 177

    Chapter 177MATTHEWHe was quiet for a moment, running his finger along the strap of his sleepover bag. "I feel like it's okay to be excited about things again," he said. "Like, before, when something was good, I felt bad about it being good. Because Mama wasn't there for it." He paused, finding the words with the careful effort he always brought to hard things. "But I talked to Dr. Fisher about it and she said that Mama would want me to have good things. That the good things aren't—" He paused again. "She said the good things aren't happening instead of Mama. They're happening alongside missing her."I looked at my son."Does that make sense?" he asked."Yes," I said. "That makes complete sense.""So I let myself be excited." He looked at his bag. "I think Mama would think Biscuit sounds like a good dog.""I think she would too," I said."She liked dogs," he said. "She told me once, when we walked past a big one on the street, that she'd always wanted one but they'd never had one." H

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 176

    Chapter 176 MATTHEW "So the dinosaurs should be safe." He buckled himself in with the efficient speed of someone who wanted to be buckled in so they could continue talking. "I've put the most important ones in the keep-at-home category, like we discussed. The middle-importance ones I'm bringing. And I'm bringing the Brachiosaurus specifically because it's the largest and if Biscuit has to carry something in his mouth I'd rather it be the one I'm least attached to." "That's strategic thinking," I said, pulling out of the drop-off zone. "I thought so too." He looked at me in the rearview mirror with the studied casualness of someone who was trying not to look like they were about to ask the question they were about to ask. "Have you thought about it any more?" I had thought about it. Had spent part of the morning thinking about it, running through the relevant factors in the way I ran through most things now—not just the fear version, not just the worst-case scenario version, but t

  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 39

    Chapter 39MATTHEW I stood in Bianca's closet like a man surveying the ruins of a life he'd destroyed, surrounded by evidence of my failures as a husband.Designer dresses hung in neat rows—the emerald silk gown I'd insisted she wear to the Alpha Summit, the champagne cocktail dress for the Winter

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-21
  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 41

    Chapter 41MATTHEW Mia's recovery was nothing short of a miracle. I had been checking up on her when I could, while carrying out, albeit slowly burial's preparations.By the fourth day, she was walking the halls of the recovery wing without assistance from the nurses, moving normally. By the fifth

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-21
  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 40

    Chapter 40MATTHEWHe dissolved into sobs, curling into a ball on his bed, and when I tried to reach for him again, he flinched away from my touch like I was poison.My own son. Flinching from me. Hating me. And I deserved every bit of it.I left his room because I couldn't stand to see his pain an

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-21
  • Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore   Chapter 34

    Chapter 34BIANCAI woke to the sound of machines beeping steadily, Every breath took effort, and my chest ached with a deep, bone-weary exhaustion that suggested I'd been fighting something or someone.My eyes cracked open slowly, the fluorescent lights above was too bright, making me shut my eye

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-20
More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status