The Officer's Runaway Wife and Secret Son novel Chapter 345

The wind on the rooftop showed no sign of stopping. Noah stood there, his gaze fixed on the side of Clara's face, partially hidden by her windswept hair.

Back then, sunlight had streamed through the blinds of the Ashton University library, casting stripes of light across her face. He sat opposite her, turning a page in his book each time his eyes lingered on her for a moment longer.

He kept telling himself to wait, to wait until she noticed him. But people who play by the rules often don't even get a ticket to the show.

Noah looked at Clara, his eyes filled with regret.

If he had offered her that tissue, if he had confessed his feelings before Rhys ever appeared, would everything have been different?

Would she have been spared so much pain?

Listening to this confession, eight years too late, Clara's heart was a tangle of emotions.

When Noah had mentioned seeing her around campus before, she had always thought it was a coincidence. She never knew that while she was chasing Rhys with all her heart, another pair of eyes had been following her.

"I'm sorry... I didn't know..."

"Don't say you're sorry." Noah raised a hand to stop her. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel guilty, and I'm certainly not trying to use the past to tie you down. I just want you to know that my feelings for you are no less than Rhys's, and they didn't come any later."

He gave a bitter smile, resting his palms on the railing. "I lost to him, not because of timing, and not because of the depth of my feelings. It was simply because... I wasn't 'bad' enough."

Not rebellious enough, not reckless enough.

He couldn't bear to see Clara hurt, couldn't stand to see her cry, and he certainly couldn't bring himself to use force to make her choose him.

So all he could do was stand on the safe side of the line, watching her throw herself into another man's fire, time and time again.

"Clara, in love, there's no first-come, first-served. There's only who you want."

"But I still have to ask." He looked into her eyes. "If I hadn't hesitated back then..."

Clara turned, leaning her back against the railing. "But I'm twenty-nine now. After the New Year, my next birthday will be my thirtieth."

"I've been through a divorce, I've bled, I have Felix, and I've seen just how dark people's hearts can be."

Noah's heart skipped a beat.

The Clara before him was still beautiful, still resilient, but her eyes no longer held the same reckless fire they had at twenty.

His fingers, resting at his side, curled slightly. He asked tentatively, "So...?"

"So, I am genuinely considering it." Clara looked directly into his eyes, without a trace of evasion. "Not to spite Rhys, and not out of gratitude. I genuinely believe that if I spend the rest of my life with you, Felix and I would have a good life."

No ghost of Margot haunting them, no emergency calls at all hours, no bodies covered in wounds, and no unforeseen accidents looming on the horizon.

She wouldn't have to worry if her husband would sacrifice himself for someone else, or if her child would be whispered about at school.