Divorce With Benefits: A Second Chance At Love
Chapter 67: Her Hidden Past(2)

Chapter 67: Her Hidden Past(2)

"Honestly, the worst part wasn’t Jefferson and my mother," Jerica admitted, glancing away. "It was my father. He knew about it—allowed it, even. He had his own affairs to cover up, so he let them carry on. It was just...part of the arrangement."

Jared’s face softened, and she saw a glint of red in his eyes. He swallowed hard, his hands slowly unclenching. "I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like. Here I thought growing up without a father was hard..." He muttered the last part silently.

He thought she had everything growing up but she had this big hole in her heart. Seeing her mother with another man who was not her father must have hurt her deeply. And to be shipped off the boarding school for doing nothing wrong...

Poor girl...

He wanted to know her when they were younger. He wanted to go back in time and hug the little girl who was sent to the boarding school with tears in her eye closely and tell her that everything would be okay and that she’d turn out to be an incredible woman. He wanted to be there for her and support her however he could.

Jerica managed a shrug, trying to keep her tone light. "It wasn’t ideal," she admitted, though the words didn’t capture the hollow ache she had carried for years. "But it’s in the past. I’ve moved on."

He looked at her, his eyes filled with a mixture of love and sorrow, and she could see that he was still struggling to accept it. To him, it was unthinkable, something beyond his ability to comprehend. But for her, it had simply been a reality she’d learned to live with, a weight she’d grown accustomed to bearing.

But then Jared’s expression shifted, softening into something gentler, as if he finally understood just how much she had endured, how much she had kept hidden. He reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing softly against her cheek.

"Thank you," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "For telling me. I... I didn’t realize..."

"It’s okay," she whispered, her fingers tracing a reassuring line along his arm. "You couldn’t have known. I didn’t want you to... I was ashamed..."

For a long moment, they stood there, the silence heavy but comforting, each lost in their thoughts, the weight of their shared past finally feeling just a little bit lighter.

He pulled her close, resting his chin atop her head, his voice a soft murmur. "You’re stronger than I could have ever imagined, Jerica."

Jerica waited for him to let her go, but Jared was there, clinging to her like a child. It was so unlike him, this subtle desperation in his embrace, as if her very presence soothed something raw within him.

Normally, he would silently slip away to the kitchen to prepare dinner if he arrived home early, retreating into the quiet routine that had always marked his evenings. But tonight, he wasn’t drawn to the solitude of cooking. He was drawn to her, holding her close with a quiet, almost fierce need that she couldn’t quite understand.

Even when she gently tried to pull away to head to the bathroom for a shower, his arms tightened, as though the distance between them was suddenly too vast. She had to pry herself free, each inch of separation feeling like an effort, and finally he let go, watching her with an intensity that made her heart beat a little faster.

She wondered, with a soft smile, if he remembered that she was on her period—it explained why he hadn’t followed her in.

When she emerged, refreshed and relaxed, she found him waiting as if he hadn’t moved an inch, dressed now in his loungewear but with the same quiet, unyielding presence. As soon as she came close, he drew her into his arms again, a gentle but insistent embrace, his head nestling against her shoulder.

She didn’t know if he was comforting her or if he needed comfort.

She let herself relax into the warmth of his body, running a hand down his back with a smile, but curiosity bloomed in her as she wondered what had brought on this unusual tenderness.

She reached up to press the back of her hand against his forehead, checking if he was feverish, half-joking to herself. Usually, he only acted this soft and clingy when he was sick. But his skin was cool beneath her touch, and she felt a rush of warmth, both relief and affection mingling as she realized he was perfectly fine.

They couldn’t stay like this for long. After a few minutes, she chuckled softly, nudging him toward the bed where they finally collapsed together, tangled up in each other’s arms. He shifted, settling his head in her lap, his arms wrapped around her thighs like he couldn’t let her go.

And then, he broke the silence. "Was it hard... growing up without your parents?" he asked, his voice quiet, almost fragile, as though he were peeling back the layers of something tender inside himself just by asking.

The vulnerability in his words tugged at her heart, and she looked down at him, her fingers brushing through his hair. Jared had always seemed so self-assured, so invulnerable. Yet, in this moment, he gazed up at her with a mix of wonder and sadness that softened her heart.

She knew that when he first got close to her, he admired her strength, her ability to keep standing after losing her family. It struck her now just how deeply he admired the strength she barely thought about—strength she had no choice but to build.

That silent respect he held for her was one of the things she cherished most about him. And somehow, he seemed more aware of that now than ever.

That incident in the bathtub did come back to her memory. She thought that he considered her weak and someone who would end her life to run away from her worries. But talking to him now and seeing the way he looked at her, she had a feeling that he admired her mental fortitude.

But she realized, beneath that admiration, there was a sadness too, a longing. She could feel it in the way his gaze lingered, and the way he held her close as if he could feel the weight of all she’d endured.

The question he asked, though simple, carried layers of emotion she sensed he couldn’t fully express. She could almost see the wheels turning in his mind, trying to understand what her life had been like, to fathom the girl she had been, alone without her family.

"Was it hard?" he asked again, quieter this time, as if needing reassurance, as though each word brought him closer to a truth he wanted to understand.