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.

people I never thought I'd have to question. And I want you

smile tugged at the corner

hand, squeezing it gently. "I do. I don't want to

like a weight had lifted off her shoulders too. "Then let's

a trail. Something we

down and went through the document, picking apart every line, and every detail. It felt

spent so much time trying to shield her from this side of my world, but now, with her beside me, it

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

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

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 to

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

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

the day, he still chose to betray me, Sarah. And if he's willing to do that, then he's part

settled between us as we both absorbed the weight of what we were about to

than either of us, but we were doing

protect us," I said