Regretting The Wife He Threw Away

Stewart's brow was furrowed tight.

There was something deeply unsettling about the way Xenia Cooper spoke—a glimpse into a mind teetering on the edge.

“Xenia, you need to see a psychiatrist," he said quietly.

“Oh, but I have!” Xenia replied with a twisted smile. She stood, sauntered over to him, and reached for his collar as if to straighten it, but Stewart recoiled, his expression full of disgust.

He backed away as if she were venomous. The look in his eyes was the way you'd look at someone completely unhinged.

Xenia arched an eyebrow, tilting her head with a mocking little smirk. "All your chastity for Briony has come to nothing, you know. She and Maynard just made their relationship official. With the way Maynard's family operates, it won't be long before they pressure Briony into marriage. For the sake of the baby, for the family's reputation—she'll have no choice but to give in.”

"Bryn won't,” Stewart said, his voice firm, full of conviction.

She laughed, her lips a slash of crimson. "Oh yeah? Want to make a bet?"

Stewart had no intention of humoring her. There was nothing to be gained from arguing with a woman this unstable.

He turned to leave.

"Stewart.” Her voice stopped him in his tracks.

He hesitated, shoulders tense.

at his back. “Really—let's make a bet. Don't you want to know if

to face him,

can't let her go,

for her sake. And now, she's about

before him radiated a

understood now-her mind was warped, but it wasn't about hatred for any one person. She didn't just hate him, or Briony, or anyone in

She hated the

memory flashed-Vernon's voice in the hospital:

Cooper really

of Vernon, Stewart felt something twist inside

boy was smart-painfully mature for his age. But Xenia never stopped pushing him, training him,

closed his eyes, old memories surfacing—the

now, with his own son and daughter healing him, he wanted

weary sigh. “Xenia, you're sick.

as if hearing the punchline to a cosmic joke. "Me sick? I was perfectly healthy when I donated bone marrow to Briony-all the tests said so. The doctors said I could live to a hundred! I'll

you keep tormenting him like this, you'll be