All Chapters of Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore: Chapter 161 - Chapter 170

Chapter 161RIVERA"That was good thinking," she said."I know." He settled back against her with the satisfactory air of someone who'd completed a necessary check and found things in order. "Are we going home today?""Not today," I said, from my side of the table. "Maybe in a few days. We have some things to do first."Louis accepted this with the equanimity of a child who'd learned that grown-up schedules were frequently complicated and resistant to his preferences. "Are the things dangerous?""Some of them might be a little bit," I said. "But we're being very careful.""Is that why there are men outside walking around the garden?""Yes.""I thought so." He looked at the Ankylosaurus in his hand. "Can we have eggs? The ones Mummy makes with the cheese inside?"I looked at Bianca.She was already shifting him off her lap with the smooth efficiency of someone transitioning from comfort to function, standing up and moving toward the refrigerator. "Go wash your hands," she said to Louis

Chapter 163MATTHEWTheo's face did the thing it did when he was pleased but was managing the expression to avoid looking too pleased, which he'd developed as a strategy after learning that excessive enthusiasm sometimes made adults reconsider their decisions. It involved a slight pressing together of the lips and a very controlled nod."Okay," he said, with studied calm. "That sounds reasonable.""It does," I agreed.The drive to school was similar to the breakfast—him talking, me listening, the specific pleasure of a conversation that required nothing from me except attention. He'd moved from Biscuit to Daniel's books to a theory about whether the particular dinosaur on the cover of the largest book was correctly colored, which it wasn't, he was fairly sure, based on recent research he'd been doing with Sophie, who had access to better reference materials."Sophie has a subscription," he explained. "To a science magazine. For kids. It has articles about new discoveries.""That sound

Chapter 165KLAUSElijah's update came through at six-oh-three PM.I read it standing in the narrow hallway of the safe house, with the noise of the group assembling in the main room behind me and the particular focused stillness that came over me when pieces were moving into their final positions.*Thorne departed hotel at 17:52. Currently traveling toward pack assembly location via main route. Pace and route consistent with guest attendee rather than operational movement. No contact with known associates en route. Two unidentified vehicles following at distance — possibly security, possibly coven support. Unable to confirm.*Two unidentified vehicles. That was the detail I held onto, because everything else in the message was expected. Thorne moving toward the assembly was the plan working as anticipated. Two vehicles we couldn't identify moving with him was the variable.I forwarded the update to Mikael and went back into the main room.The safe house's main room was not designed f

Chapter 167KLAUSHe was quiet for a moment. The frown shifted slightly—not deepening, but changing, like something inside it was trying to resolve into words and couldn't quite get there."Nothing," he said finally. He looked back down at the Ankylosaurus. "Never mind."The room held a beat of stillness. Then Elijah moved to update a position marker, and Mikael returned to his phone, and Rivera pushed off from the window to look at the layout, and the moment passed the way moments did when everyone agreed without speaking to let it pass.But I watched Louis for another few seconds after everyone else had moved on.He wasn't looking at the Ankylosaurus. He was looking at it without seeing it, the way you looked at something in your hands when your attention was actually elsewhere. His jaw was set in the particular way it got when he was holding something in rather than letting it out.He put the Ankylosaurus down carefully, at the edge of the formation, slightly separated from the oth

Chapter 169MATTHEW"I have a son," I said. "He's four years old. He lost his mother, and he spent months in grief so heavy it silenced him. He's been in therapy, and he's working his way through it, and he is the most honest person I've ever known about what he's feeling and what he needs." I paused, finding the words carefully. "Watching him do that work has taught me more about what I should have been doing than anything else in my life. He's four years old and he does the true thing even when it's hard, because his therapist told him it was always worth doing, and he believed her." I looked at the room. "I'm trying to believe her too."Something moved in the faces near the front. Not sentimentality—the people in this room had been through too much together for easy sentiment. But recognition. The thing that happened when you heard something that connected to something true in your own experience."Here's what I'm committing to," I said. "Not as policy language, not as managed prom