Regretting The Wife He Threw Away

Briony kept her head bowed, afraid he might notice something was wrong.

She nodded quietly and lifted another spoonful of soup to her lips.

Stewart stood nearby, watching her. It wasn't until her third bite that he finally noticed something was off.

He quickly crouched down beside her, just in time to see a tear slip from her eye.

The tear landed in the pale soup.

A sharp ache pulsed in Stewart's chest. "Bryn?"

Briony reached up to wipe her eyes. "I'm fine, really..."

Stewart gently took the bowl from her hands and set it on the table.

"Bryn, I'm sorry. I know I put you through so much." He knelt on one knee in front of her, a heavy sorrow settling over him.

He knew exactly why she was crying.

A simple bowl of soup had opened the floodgates of memory.

For five years, she had started from nothing, learning as she went, raising a newborn with patience and devotion. She gave everything without complaint, only to have it all repaid with his betrayal, and the resentment and blame of that child she'd loved as her own...

Then, after four years apart, even when fate brought them together again, he'd only managed to hurt her all over.

Each wound had etched itself into her heart, leaving scars that never quite faded.

didn't want to keep clinging to the past. Maybe she was simply

that truly happened-how could anyone ever pretend they

bowl of soup, and she was in

a complete fool back

consumed with regret ashamed of all the pain he'd

tears, but Briony turned away before he could touch

moment alone," she said softly, still refusing to meet his eyes, determined not to

awkwardly in

swallowed

got to his

Briony buried her face

sat untouched, cooling as the

might dull the sharpest pain, but it couldn't erase what had truly happened. When familiar faces or objects returned, the memories came with them, resurfacing with a vengeance,

genuinely tell her past self that it was all

was impossible to hide Briony's illness for

trustworthy-except for Julia Hudson-found

soon as they heard, Carney Winslow and

tears, while Briony, calm and composed, ended up comforting her instead-even though she was the one who

stay in Northborough for the time being. With Briony's health so fragile,

round-the-clock care, so Gwendolyn and Carney realized there wasn't

now, only Briony and Stewart

countryside years ago and knew

thriving under

snippets of Julia's life and sent them