Winning Back His Ex's Wife's Broken Heart by Hayley

Chapter 96

Richard

pov.

The anger hit me fast, followed by a wave of regret. "I should have known," I muttered, my jaw clenching as I dropped the paper onto the table. "I should've seen this coming." Sarah stepped closer, her hand resting on my arm. "Richard, you couldn't have known. You trusted him because... well, because he was family to you."

"Family," I echoed, the word tasting bitter. "Some family he turned out to be. He was there through everything, and now... now he's part of this mess, trying to tear us down."

I turned away, trying to calm myself. This betrayal cut deep. But standing there, feeling Sarah's gaze on my back, I felt something else-something that was stronger than anger or regret. Trust. She'd trusted me enough to tell me, to show me this evidence, even when it could have blown up in both our faces.

"Sarah," I said, my voice low, turning back to her. "Thank you. For telling me."

She looked surprised, like she hadn't expected me to say that. "I just... I knew I couldn't keep it from you, even if it hurt. We need to be honest with each other if we're going to get through this." I nodded, letting her words sink in. She was right. The only way out of this mess was together, and that meant I had to stop trying to protect her by keeping her in the dark.

She'd stood by me this whole time, trusted me when no one else would. It was time I trusted her as much as she trusted me.

"We're going to find out everything," I said firmly, looking into her eyes.

into every part of this, even if it means looking at people I never thought I'd have

corner of her mouth.

hand, squeezing it gently. "I do.

relieved, like a weight had lifted off her shoulders too. "Then let's start with him," she

the network, there has to be a trail. Something we

picking apart every line, and every detail. It felt strange, sitting there with her, combing through evidence,

trying to shield her from this side of my world, but now, with her beside me, it felt... right. Like I should've let her

we worked, I caught glimpses of Sarah's expression-focused, determined.

stronger than I'd given her credit for, and now that we were doing this together, I realized how much I'd underestimated her. We were a team, and if we were going to take down this network, I had to start seeing her as my equal in every

had their hands in everything, but there were still gaps, holes we could use. And every new piece of information we found made me feel like we were one step closer

in the margins. "It's a list of people connected to him-some of them have been

as she pieced it all together. "If we can connect any of these people back to the network, we'll have proof. Enough to clear our names and maybe even take down a few of their operations." She looked at me, her eyes shining with a mix of hope and determination.

thought made my stomach turn. "Maybe. But at the end of the day, he still chose to betray me, Sarah. And if he's willing to do that, then he's part of the problem. We can't let ourselves feel sorry for him." She nodded, her expression hardening. "You're right. We have to focus on stopping them,

absorbed the weight of

bigger than either of us, but we were doing it together.

said quietly, reaching over to