The Officer's Runaway Wife and Secret Son novel Chapter 514

Clara simply took a seat next to him. On Owen's other side, Rhys's face instantly darkened.

He didn't want her on the front lines for this.

This was his battle. She shouldn't have to deal with a scumbag like Owen.

But Owen treated Rhys and Clara very differently.

To Owen, Clara was just "Clara."

In the eyes of these wealthy heirs, she was merely an accessory—a pretty wife meant to smile, nod, and stay out of the way.

"I was just curious," Clara said casually, ignoring Rhys's glare as she refilled Owen's glass and handed it back to him. "Out of all his friends, you've known him the longest, right? I was gone for years, so I have no idea what he really went through."

Owen's defenses were already crumbling under the influence of the drugs. This gentle, conversational tone posed absolutely no threat, leaving him zero reason to keep his guard up.

"Known him the longest? Not really."

He took the glass, the ice clinking cheerfully against the sides. "Shawn's known him longer. I came into the picture later... mainly through Margot, actually."

Rhys shot him a sidelong glance.

He couldn't even remember exactly when he met Owen.

When his father was still alive, they hadn't lived with the Huntingtons. Only after he was sent there did he start getting dragged to these high-society dinners.

The kids at those events operated on the same ruthless hierarchy as the adults.

Whose car was parked closest to the entrance, whose parents toasted whom the most—those were the unspoken rules.

He had met Shawn and Owen and the rest of the laughing faces in this room through those very rules.

After the car crash, he had visited Margot's hospital room almost every day after school. Somehow, Owen had managed to track them down there.

When Owen walked into the room, Rhys had been sitting by the bed, reading a textbook aloud to her.

That was how Owen met Margot.

Seeing a stranger, the little girl had ducked her head and cowered behind Rhys.

Was she genuinely terrified back then, or had she already figured out that acting helpless was the easiest way to earn his protection?

Rhys had no way of knowing anymore.

It had taken him years to peel back the layers of his own crushing guilt.

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