Zara managed to fool him again🙃 But he's not affected by her schemes. Will he succeed in melting Claire's heart again?
82Claire darted straight towards her room after coming back home. She removed her clothes near the bed and slipped under a hot shower. The tears coming out of her eyes battled with the heat she was feeling on her body from the contact of water. She pressed her hair back and took a deep breath. Her heart wasn't in any mood to calm down nor her body which was trembling from all the emotions coming on the surface. "Both of them are the same... Sick bastards!" She muttered before turning the water cold. Claire spent some time under the spray of cold water as her nerves relaxed. Crying also helped make her chest light and feel fresh. When she came out of the room in a robe, with her hair in a knot, Penny was sitting on her bed with her phone. She sensed Claire's presence and looked up with a smile. However, the smile died the minute she appraised Claire's red-rimmed eyes. "You cried in the shower, didn't you? That is why it took you twenty minutes." Penny dropped her phone on the mat
83"I so wanted to spend the night in your room and talk more, Claire. But the medicines are making me sleepy. We'll continue tomorrow." Penny offered an apologetic grin as she jumped down the window sill. "Take care of your hand. Don't sleep like a horse." Claire chuckled as she watched her friend sleepily strut out of her room. Once she was gone, Claire craned her neck to look outside. The sky was pitch black and gray clouds floating lazily. The air was too much to handle though she was wearing warm pajamas with a thick woolen cardigan over a full-sleeved top. It felt like ice knives on her skin. Claire rubbed her forearms, a small smile tucking at the corner of her lips as she noticed the drizzling drops. Under the lights radiating alongside the fence, she caught the sight of scattered rain drops. It was worth capturing on her phone. And also, she thought, it was time to slowly return to social media to rebuild her fan base. She would need it once her company was ready and she h
84She stopped just before she was about to hit send. And she stopped because it struck her that the view she devoured from the balcony attached with their bedroom, and the associated caption, wasn't the first time he texted her.In fact, there were more. More words he typed than he had ever told her in one day during their two years long marriage. Words that screamed emotions. Her heart thundered away in her chest, challenging the ones unfolding in the sky above. Hunter: Hey wifeyClaire's eyes frosted upon the first text he sent as the warmth began to leave her body and ice settled in. 'I'm not your wife.' She corrected it in her mind as she read further. Hunter: I know you are mad and you have every right to be. But can you plz listen to me? Don't reply if you don't want to. Justlet me convey what I feel for you.Hunter: And before I say it let me request you to not even think of blocking my number. I will keep buying new numbers to call you or simply make my tech guy unblock
85His eyes froze on her face. Was she the woman he spent two years with in their marital home? Claire MacIntyre, the woman that was his wife, never raised her voice on him. Talk less of talking like a woman full of venom. To say, she was not even sparing him a glance. His nerves pinched and his chest grew hollow. The heart he had developed after realizing her love was dying a slow death. "Giving up so easily? She's hardly cold whereas you have been everything a woman wouldn't want her husband to be." A tiny voice spoke in his mind. It rejuvenated his spirits and Hunter gave her a tender smile. His face was illuminated and it made her stomach do a somersault. She kept her hard face intact as Hunter wiggled his eyebrows. "I know in your chest is a heart that beats only for me. That being said, your hard looks won't do me any harm. If anything, it only makes me want to do everything impossible for you. Like plucking the brightest stars for you and adorn them on your head." Claire cr
"You look amazing!" Hunter MacIntyre's compliment sent his wife, Claire's blood coursing in her veins like an awakened river. "Thanks," She lowered her head while trying to hide her smile. Today was their second wedding anniversary. Claire was a lucky girl to marry the man she loved. She felt her nerves twisting in yummy delight. Her husband was a substitute to slow torture with that look of his. With that tailored suit clinging to his body, he forced eyes to take a look at him. Her gaze traveled to his brown, strong throat, then towards the deliciously straight mouth and up to his black eyes; dark and hooded and so full of secrets. They watched her intently causing her breathing to catch. Hunter hugged her from the back and snuggled her bare shoulder. He enveloped her right in his hold, enjoying the feeling of her being in his arms. "I can't wait to tell the world that I am falling for my own wife." Today was their anniversary. And the day couldn't get any better. Claire
Claire felt exposed to danger. Like a baby bird left in the open. She dragged shallow breaths as she watched her husband hug his ex-girlfriend possessively. He whispered something in Zara's ear, making her eyes water. He wiped them with his hand. By this time, all the cameramen focused on them. Gasps erupted around Claire as Hunter's admirers began to gossip about it. "Oh goodness! Isn't that Zara Levine, Hunter's ex-girlfriend?" "Christ, she looks more beautiful than before!" "Look at Hunter's expression. He's all desperate around her. Damn, he's kissing her!" "They look so good together. But I pity Claire. She must have waited for today wholeheartedly and it had to be ruined like this. Her husband is kissing his ex-girlfriend in front of her. That's insane!" "But why is Zara back? She was married to another man, wasn't she? What's this now?" All the remarks around her made her body heavy. Claire was rooted in her spot. "Claire, let's go inside." Her brother tried to pull her.
3 When Claire shook the hazy veil of darkness and came to the surface, the first face she saw was of her mother. Andrea's eyes were red and cheeks flushed. She was in the same dress she donned for Claire and Hunter's wedding anniversary. It was visible just by looking at her that she didn't leave her daughter's side even for one second. "Laire, baby," Andrea impatiently leaned towards her daughter and cupped her face. A tear of relief trickled from her left eye. She kissed her forehead and immediately looked over her shoulder to shout, "Claire is awake, Dominic!" She turned to her daughter again. She removed hair from her eyes and smiled, "How are you feeling now, honey?" She touched her swollen lip gently. Claire just stared back. Her mother's tears made her remember her own. Then it returned to her mind like a slow memory returning to a person suffering with amnesia. Pain, hot and raw, settled in her chest. Claire recalled how her husband left her outside the hotel they
4 "Ever since I gained maturity I have loved you. I kept myself pure so you would be the one taking me. I dressed myself as per your liking so you would look at me. I even turned down offers of marriage from compatible men because I was enchanted by you. After all the sacrifices I made for you, this is what you give me?" She grasped his collars, shaking him. Her streaming eyes made his face seem blurry. "For two years I endured your ill-treatment and invested my time to make you happy. I would make food each day even though you left it to turn cold. I didn't complain when you came home late and retired to bed without even taking a glance at me even if I was wide awake and talking to you." "You forgot my birthdays, let alone wish me. You ignored my parents on family dinners. But I was still happy because you were with me all this while. I took your cold treatment with a smile. Despite all this, all that I wished for was to see you smile. You want to know why?" Hunter's eyes remaine