Chapter 224

I remembered Jared promising my parents he wouldn’t see Tracy again. At that thought, I smacked my forehead. I can’t believe I forgot to hit record when I was eavesdropping earlier.

If I’d recorded that conversation, I could’ve used it as hard evidence that Jared and Tracy were still hooking up. I needed to get my act together. Just because Tracy’s baby wasn’t Jared’s didn’t mean they hadn’t been sleeping together.

Saturday rolled around, but I was still buried in work. Some of the office staff came in for overtime. Ryan could’ve taken the day off since he was just an intern, but he showed up bright and early anyway.

“Ms. Murphy, did you have breakfast?” Ryan asked, placing a pastry bag on the corner of my desk. “I brought some bread.”

The milky scent hit me, and I glanced at the bag. “Where did you get these? They smell incredible.”

Ryan’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I… I made them myself.”

I looked at him in surprise. Yvonne was a ridiculously picky eater. I’d taught myself to bake a few things for her, but I could never pull off anything this good.

“No way. You’re what, barely twenty? And you can bake like this?” I shook my head in amazement.

Ryan blushed a little, but he looked pleased. “Go ahead, try it. Let me know what you think.”

I picked one out and took a bite. It was fluffy and light, perfectly sweet. “This is amazing,” I told him with a nod.

A proud smile spread across Ryan’s face. Right then, someone called him over to help move stuff around the hotel.

Jared showed up at my office around noon. After our huge fight yesterday, I assumed things between us were at rock bottom.

He pushed the door open, looking depressed. And I honestly didn’t think he’d even try to speak to me. He glanced at the pastries on my desk. “Let’s go out for lunch, shall we?” he said.

“No thanks,” I said, my voice flat. “I’ve got these. I’m good.” It was so weird. Jared had been finding all sorts of excuses to take me out to eat lately, more than he had in years of our actual marriage.

“You can’t just eat that. That’s not a real meal,” he argued, frowning at me.

I let out a dry laugh. “Thanks for caring, but I’m watching my weight. This works.”

The fact that I wouldn’t even eat with him made his face twist with anger. “We’re not divorced yet,” he said, his voice bitter. “All these years… Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” He wanted me to think I was the heartless one.

“I just don’t want to eat. Why are you pushing it?” I said calmly, looking him straight in the eye.

“You’re just trying to get to me,” Jared said. His eyes were bloodshot. He hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“Glad you noticed. No point in saying it out loud,” I said, turning my attention back to my computer.

Jared didn’t leave in a huff like I expected. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to me. A few minutes later, he was fast asleep.

I couldn’t believe it. Jared was a total neat freak and ridiculously picky about where he slept. I’d never seen him just crash in some random chair like this.

I frowned, watching him. Jared had been acting weird lately. It was almost like me asking for a divorce had somehow made him fall for me all over again. I wasn’t buying it. This was pure ego. He couldn’t stand losing control.

I made a bunch of noise on purpose, but he didn’t even twitch. He was still dead to the world.

I could see some staff peeking through the glass walls of the office, whispering to each other. To them, we were still the happy couple—an illusion I had worked so hard to build.

Suddenly, Jared’s head jerked from side to side, and he let out a low, painful groan. I glanced over at him. His face was tense. Even though the AC was blasting, sweat was beading on his forehead. I ignored him and kept working.