Mana: Before The Rise 20 Returned Wife 4

Isandro.

His face was so harsh and austere that Rachel sucked in a breath.

He hated her.

She could feel it tangibly as he came and stood in front of her, head back, looking down at her with heavy-lidded disgust.

His blue eyes were like shards of ice.

"You will remain in this room tonight, and tomorrow morning we may discuss things." He said.

Rachel looked at him skeptically.

"No need to look so suspicious, Maddison. You are, after all, my wife—are you not? Naturally I am overjoyed to see you again."

With a mocking look on his face he backed away before turning and leaving the room. When an outer door shut too, Rachel knew that she was finally quite alone. Hesitantly she opened the door into the outer part of the suite and looked around. Maddison's suitcase had also been transported upstairs. Breathing a little easier for the first time in hours, Rachel went to a couch and sat down. Half distracted, she felt something underneath her and plucked it out. It was a furry toy animal.

Rachel closed her eyes and before long she feels asleep on the sofa. Maddison wasn't in any good condition mentally as she didn't feel comfortable sleeping in beds. Of course, this transferred over to Rachel.

-Later that Night-

Isandro found himself at the door of the suite just down the hall from his own private rooms. What was he doing here? He opened the door and stepped in. The light was dim, the curtains still open, and it was only as he walked towards the bedroom that he saw the shape on the sofa.

His heart fell. Why couldn't she have just disappeared?
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He knew d.a.m.n well why.

She was back to get everything her greedy little hands could carry. No doubt including his son. Look at her. He almost laughed out loud when he saw Zac's toy clenched in one hand, close to her face. She'd come back from whatever rock she'd been hiding under, like an actress poised in the wings of the stage, ready to make her entrance.

Yet, much to his dismay, faced with her benign sleeping form, Isandro was helpless against a rush of memories. The first time he'd seen her across a packed function room where he'd come to meet Henry Smith.

Maddison's father had been a man in dire straits, about to become publicly bankrupt unless Isandro agreed to a mutually beneficial deal. Smith had known that Isandro wanted in, and Isandro had known Smith needed saving from public humiliation and ruination. In the middle of it all had been Maddison. Part of the deal.

At some point he left the room.

Rachel opened her wide-awake eyes, without 'Perfect Observation' she problem wouldn't have even been able to read his emotions this accurately. But, to think this ability was this strong. "Amazing" she whispered before falling asleep again.

-Next Day-

'I trust you slept well?' he asked innocuously, with no evidence of the will he was imposing onto his body's response to seeing her. Anger at this renewal of response surged through him.

"Yes, I did"

Isandro folded his arms. "Your timing is impeccable…but then I guess you've proved that already."

Rachel's eyes met his cold ones. She ignored his barb. Waited to hear what he would no doubt explain.

He brushed past her to the window, as if in deliberate provocation, and Rachel sucked in a betraying breath at the way he took her off guard by coming so close. At the way her skin p.r.i.c.kled uncomfortably. His cool and musky scent wrapped around her, and another scent…that baby scent. Her heart lurched in reaction.

Maddison strong need to see her son was taking over Rachel.

He stayed with his back to her for a moment. For some reason he couldn't trust himself to face her, and he hated that. He spoke in a monotone. "Two months from now it will be two years exactly since you walked out of that hospital. You've returned now because we can both file for divorce and you can get your hands on the money agreed in the prenup. I see you've been careful not to go beyond the two-year desertion mark, which would have biased things against you. It must be killing you to come back and disrupt your plans, but once the divorce is through, you'll be off again." He turned around and fixed her with those laser eyes. "Yes?"

"Yes, I'll be off again after two months, but, like I said before. I just want to see your 'son' for these remaining days.

"Tell me," he said thoughtfully, "have you already planned your public defense? Are you going to go with postnatal depression, which is what the papers hinted at as being the likely cause of your curious absence from my side?"

Her mouth fell open. "Postnatal depression…you mean people don't know?" after saying those words Rachel realized something.

Isandro's eyes narrowed on hers. 'Why are you doing this? Why are you pretending you don't know?'

"...."

He answered her unspoken thoughts. "n.o.body is aware of the fact that you deserted this marriage. They lost interest when I returned to Spain with Zac, believing that you had simply taken refuge from prying eyes at our…my Seville home."

"And your family…?"

"Oh, they know exactly what happened. Somehow they weren't surprised."

'Yeah, those people where nothing but judgmental b.a.s.t.a.r.ds' Rachel thought "The divorce papers when will you have them ready?" Rachel changed the topic.

"Tomorrow"

Rachel nodded

"If you agree to divorce proceedings-"

"Isandro, I'll agree to anything as long as you give me these two months" Rachel cut him off in downcast.

"All this-"

"Please Isandro no more talking just these two months, nothing more" Rachel cut him off again.

"You will come and live in my house for a sufficient amount of time to prove your…good intentions towards Zac. You will be allowed a certain amount of supervised access—"

"That's fine" Rachel said distantly and picked up her suitcase, which was already neatly packed and ready to go. "We can leave now, can't we"

-Later-

The ride to his Seville house was silent, Isandro taking little glances at Rachel every now and them. Maddison was a mystery now, why was she always insisting two months? He wanted to ask but his Spanish pride wouldn't let him, this woman left him and his child so why.