Chasing His Rejected Wife
Chapter 50 -

"Can you ask Anna to come and stay with you for a few days?" Aiden asked me. He was driving me home, both hands controlling the steering with ease as he weaved through the heavy traffic.

I turned away from idly watching the scenery go by and glanced at Aiden, wondering how he had guessed my thoughts.

He seemed to think I was questioning him because he added. "I don't like the thought of you being alone up there, especially not tonight."

Dr. Strand had been unable to reach the specialist but had promised to contact us once she got through to him. In the meantime, she'd suggested I go home and rest. I was forbidden from doing anything stressful, and to spend as much time off my feet as possible.

Aiden had offered to drive me home and since I knew I was in no state to concentrate on driving, neither did I feel like dealing with the hassle of calling for a ride, so I accepted his offer as it allowed me to dwell in my riotous thoughts. "Umm..yeah, I was just...thinking about asking her over," I replied, grimacing as talking seemed to worsen the throbbing in my head. The gamut of emotions I'd run through today, plus the sleepless nights had drained me and I was barely functioning at the moment.

I picked up my phone so I could send Anna a text and that's when I noticed dozens of missed calls, voicemails, and texts, all from Anna. Worried that something else had happened, I opened our chat, read the first few texts, and groaned. ANNA: SOS! THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST JUST FUCKING SHOWED UP AT MY BAR AND SHE LOOKS PISSED. CALL ME NOW!

ANNA: SHE'S DEMANDING TO KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. STAY CLEAR OF THE BAR.

ANNA: SHE'S SO LUCKY YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND OR SHE'D BE HEADING TO THE ER WITH TWO BLACK EYES.

ANNA: I'M FUCKING LOSING MY SANITY. I CHANGED MY MIND, COME GET YOUR MOM NOW WHILE SHE'S STILL BREATHING.

She'd used all caps which meant the situation was dire. I groaned again, leaned back against the headrest, and closed my eyes. I could feel the headache pounding hard at the back of my eyes and winced. I really didn't need this happening right now. I couldn't deal with Mom on top of everything else today.

"Something the matter?" Aiden asked.

Without opening my eyes, I replied. "My mom. She's in New York."

He was silent at this bit of news and I got curious as to what he was thinking, so I took a peek. He was staring straight ahead, eyes narrowed, the muscles of his jaw working as though he'd clenched his teeth. Then I noticed how tightly he gripped the wheel, his knuckles had gone stark white.

"Is she at your place?" He asked, still staring ahead.

"No, she showed up at Anna's bar. She doesn't know where I live now so I guess she thought I'd moved in with Anna." A thought occurred to me and I sighed. "She must have gone to your house first and found out I moved out. I bet that pissed her off even more than learning about the divorce."

He glanced at me briefly, "What did she say when she found out?"

"She was mad at me, of course." I stared out the window, hit by an onset of melancholy. "But then, when is she ever not angry at me? In her eyes, I'm nothing but an incompetent failure."

Oddly, that statement seemed to annoy Aiden. He muttered something under his breath, and there was a tension that filled the small space.

"You're neither of those things." Aiden countered, the words coming out crisp and clipped. When I turned my head towards him, he took his eyes off the road to meet mine and I was surprised at the genuine assurance I saw written in his expression. "You are intelligent, successful, caring and unselfish. And anyone who fails to see that is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They are the failures, not you."

My jaw went slack and my mouth dropped open, heat crept up from my neck to my face and my brain cells had all fallen into a coma.

Had Aiden...had he just paid me a compliment? And not only that, he'd actually implied that my mother was...

If you're loving the book, nel5s.com is where the adventure continues. Join us for the complete experience all for free. The next chapter is eagerly waiting for you!

I clapped a hand to my mouth in a vain effort to stifle the giggle that escaped. Aiden shot me a look and I fluttered my hand in the air as an apology for laughing, not trusting myself not to dissolve in a fit of laughter. I had no idea that Aiden was capable of dad jokes.

The corner of his mouth lifted in a wry smile and he looked abashed at my laughter. "That was pretty bad, huh?"

I shook my head, finally getting my mirth under control. "No, it's not." I assured him and hoped I sounded convincing. "It's just that I didn't expect..." I racked my brain for a proper explanation and shrugged helplessly. "You have never joked with me before, so..."

A terse silence fell between us and I winced, hating that I had effectively killed the mood. I knew Aiden had been trying to make me feel better and I had gone and ruined it by bringing up the past.

I let out a soft sigh and went back to staring out the window. Aiden came to a stop at a red light and as we waited, a blue SUV pulled up beside us. A couple sat in front, the man behind the wheel and there were two car seats with toddlers in the back. Though I couldn't hear, it seemed like the kids were crying and the parents were singing and clapping in an effort to cheer them up.

I watched them, a lump in my throat as they exchanged tender looks whilst singing, and that tight feeling returned to my chest.

That would never be Aiden and me. I could easily picture myself alone in the front seat, singing my heart out, but when I tried to put Aiden and me in the same scenario, I couldn't.

Because, once again, I had to remind myself that we were not a normal couple. And soon, we wouldn't even be a couple. We would simply be two individuals whose only thing in common was our kids.

"I really messed things up with you," Aiden said out of the blue. I glanced at him only to replace him watching the couple too, but it was hard to know what he was thinking just then. He then looked at me and this time, his smile was self- deprecating. "I know you probably don't want to hear me talk about my regrets, but I do and my biggest failing was that I didn't take the time to get to know you better."

He was right. I didn't want to hear it. But not for the reasons he thought. More than once today, I had briefly let the fleeting thought of calling off the divorce linger at the back of my mind. And I knew that if I made the mistake and succumbed to that way of thinking, then I would ultimately have myself to blame.

Because there was no future for us as a couple. There was too much mud slung both ways, too many blunders and I had finally accepted that I could be much happier going it alone rather than lugging along the heavy burden that was my marriage.

"That's..." I searched for the right words. "You already knew me, I mean I practically lived at your house since I was a kid, you know my favorite foods, my fears, everything that makes me who I am. I hardly changed."

He blew out a breath and took one hand off the steering to rake through his hair. "Yeah, you're right, I knew as much as there was to know on the surface. But I should have dug a little deeper, been a little friendlier, and maybe then I wouldn't have believed the lies."

He said the last part as though he was talking more to himself than to me and my curiosity was roused. "What lies?"

His mouth thinned, and he shook his head. "It's not important."

"Not important to me?" I asked, raising my brows in surprise. "Or not important in the general scheme of things."

"Jess -"

"If you're going to tell me to forget it, then don't bother, Aiden." I snapped, starting to get irritated again. "Because for a long time now, I've felt like I'm just a puppet being jerked about on strings. Do you know what it feels like? To have everyone around me knowing some awful secret that involves me and I don't even have a clue because nobody will tell me."

"Jess, calm down," Aiden warned, his eyes straying briefly to my midsection. "Look, there's no big secret or anything of the sort."

"Really?" I asked in disbelief. "So if it's not a secret, then go ahead and tell me what Julian had over you that made you marry me when it was clear to everyone that you didn't care for me that way. Tell me why he insisted that I had to be the one to ask for a divorce. And tell me what was in that box that I gave you on the day of his funeral."