The Officer's Runaway Wife and Secret Son novel Chapter 519

The two of them stepped into the elevator side by side. He was walking so fast that Clara practically had to jog in her heels just to keep up.

Clara stole a covert glance at him.

His eyes were locked dead onto the elevator's floor display, looking at it but seeming to process absolutely nothing.

This was a side of Rhys that Clara had never seen before.

Anger, self-loathing, bewilderment, and the hollow desolation of a man who had suddenly lost all his bearings in life.

The one thing Rhys had mastered in this life was enduring.

Enduring the pain others inflicted, and then enduring his own suffocating emotions.

As they reached the car, Clara instinctively reached for the passenger side door.

Right as her fingers brushed the handle, a sharp click echoed from behind her.

Rhys hadn't gone to the driver's side. He had pulled open the rear door, leaning his right arm against the frame as he cast his gaze down at her.

That look in his eyes immediately brought back the memory of him kneeling in the hotel room, begging her not to leave.

Her heart softened. Letting go of the front door handle, she turned around, ducked her head, and slid into the back seat. Rhys climbed in right after her.

The second the door slammed shut, he lunged forward, dragging Clara fiercely into his arms.

He held her so tightly it almost hurt.

His heart was hammering wildly against her chest, the frantic rhythm making her own chest ache in response.

"Clara... Clara..."

He chanted her name over and over in a hoarse, broken voice, his rapid, heavy breaths searing against her skin.

If tonight's accidental truth hadn't come to light, he would have spent the rest of his life shoveling his soul into a bottomless pit.

Bent over, head bowed low. Even after cutting ties with Margot, he would have forever lived carefully within a cage, pretending to be free.

Because of that lie, he had missed Clara's pregnancy. He had missed Felix's birth. He had missed an entire decade that should have been perfectly, flawlessly happy.

Nothing in the world could ever buy that time back.

"I was so stupid... How could I have been so goddamn stupid..."

Rhys's muffled voice came from the crook of her neck, bringing a thick lump to Clara's throat.

She raised her hand and gently stroked the short hair at the nape of his neck.

"You're not stupid," Clara murmured, turning her head so her lips brushed his ear. "You're not stupid. You just wanted to protect everyone too much. It wasn't your fault."

"People who get conned shouldn't waste time agonizing over why they fell for it. The blame belongs entirely to the monster who used their empathy against them.."

She had been formulating these exact words for a very long time.

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