The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 341 - チャプター 350

ALISTAIR'S POV: "Alistair. Please. Elowen needs me. She's at your mother's house, and she's scared, and I need to be there for her." "Elowen is fine." "You don't know that. You haven't even checked on her." "I spoke to my mother an hour ago. She said Elowen was asleep." There was a pause. When Mary spoke again, her voice was quieter. "I don't understand what's happening to you. I don't understand why you're doing this." "I'm not doing anything. You're the one who got yourself arrested." "I got myself arrested? A man broke my window, Alistair. He was screaming at me in front of our daughter. And when I called the police for help, they arrested me instead." "Because you attacked him." "I didn't—" She stopped. I heard her take a breath. "You don't actually believe that. You can't." I didn't answer. "Alistair. Look at me. Listen to me. I am your wife. I am the mother of your child. And I am telling you that I did nothing wrong." I closed my eyes. For a moment, just a moment,

MARY'S POV:The car pulled into my driveway, and the engine died, and for a long moment, neither of us moved.I sat in the passenger seat with my hands folded in my lap, staring at the dark windows of my house. The porch light was on, I had left it on, the morning that felt like a lifetime ago, before the strangers came and the cell and the fists.Marl's coat was still wrapped around my shoulders. I had forgotten I was wearing it. The fabric was heavy and warm, smelling of cedar and something clean and sharp, like winter air. It felt strange to be wearing a stranger's clothes. But then again, everything about tonight felt strange."I thought you were Alistair's friend," I said.My voice came out hoarse, scraped raw from crying and screaming and the cold air of the parking lot. I hadn't meant to say it out loud. The words just came, the way words do when you're too tired to filter them.Marl turned his head to look at me. The dashboard lights cast shadows across his face, sharpening hi

MARY'S POV: I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. My throat was tight, my chest full of something that felt like gratitude and grief and a hundred other things I couldn't name. Marl leaned back in his seat, his posture relaxing slightly. "Besides," he said, "I've benefited from your talents too. Before I tasted your cooking, I had no idea there was a proper way to eat turkey." I laughed again. A real laugh this time, surprising myself. "You're lying." "I'm not. I used to think turkey was just... dry chicken. Then I had yours, and I understood what all the fuss was about." "That was three years ago. Thanksgiving. Alistair invited a bunch of people over." "I remember." His eyes met mine. "I asked him who catered the meal. He said he did. I knew he was lying, but I didn't push it. I figured it was someone close to him or his housekeeper, and either way, it wasn't my business." "And now?" "Now I know it was you. And I think you deserve more credit than you've ever

MARY'S POV:"No."The answer came so quickly that even Vesper looked surprised.For a brief moment, her hand loosened from Alistair's arm. Her fingers slid away, inch by inch, her composure cracking just long enough for me to see the woman beneath the mask. Then Alistair reached over and held onto hers, his fingers wrapping around her palm like he was afraid she might disappear.I watched his hand cover hers. Watched the way his thumb traced small circles on her skin, gentle and absent, the way he used to touch me when we were young and I still believed in forever.I wasn't surprised.Not anymore.The man standing before me was a stranger wearing my husband's face. I had spent the past year learning the shape of his silences, the weight of his absences, the way he could fill a room without ever really being present. But this—this casual claiming of her hand in front of me, this public choosing—was something new.Something I should have expected.Something I should have prepared for.B

MARY'S POV:Alistair's head snapped toward me."I said apologize to her." His voice was ice. "Right now."I stared at him.At the man kneeling on the floor beside another woman. At the man who had missed his daughter's birthday. At the man who had left me in a jail cell overnight. At the man who had just asked me to apologize for something I hadn't done."Right now, Mary," he repeated. His voice rose, filling the room. "Apologize."I didn't even bother responding.There were no words left. No arguments left. No tears left. I had spent them all, every single one and won't anymore.I turned around and walked into the house. The door closed behind me with a solid click, shutting out the cold air and the lamplight and the sound of Vesper's soft, practiced whimpers.The foyer was dark. The living room was dark. The whole house felt empty, hollowed out, as if someone had scooped out the insides and left nothing but the shell.Behind me, I heard footsteps on the porch. Then knocking. Loud an