Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem novel Chapter 1216

When Winona got home, it wasn’t even seven yet.

She stood outside, suitcase in hand, staring at the familiar front door—her heart a tangled mess. After more than a year, she was back.

Back again. She, Winona, was back!

She took a deep breath, steadied her nerves, and reached for the door. The face ID scanner blinked red—access denied.

She tried her fingerprint. No luck.

She keyed in her six-digit passcode. Nope. Wrong again.

Winona stood there in five-inch heels, brows drawn tight. It was obvious: Zane had wiped her info, changed the code, locked her out.

He never thought she’d come back. Not even for a second.

Was she hurt? Of course she was. How could she not be?

Once upon a time, she’d loved him for real. He was her first love, her “once in a lifetime,” her husband—on paper, at least.

This house? Her parents had paid for their little “American Dream” starter home as a wedding gift. She’d picked out every tile, every paint swatch, every last throw pillow. She’d obsessed over the kitchen backsplash, the hardwood floors, the farmhouse sink. She’d poured her heart, her hopes, her future into this place.

And now? She couldn’t even get inside.

What did this marriage ever give her, really?

Just scars—body and soul, inside and out. No mercy, no escape.

Marriage, she thought, is a gamble. Draw a good man, you get happiness. Draw a bad one, you get a nightmare.

Winona inhaled, slow and deep. Time to end the nightmare. She wasn’t going to rot in this graveyard of a marriage.

Bam, bam, bam! She pounded on the door.

Inside, Zane and his mom, Priscilla, were probably still asleep after last night’s “haunted house” drama—she’d heard the rumors. Finally, Priscilla shuffled out of the guest room, yawning.

He shut off the house security cameras and WiFi, then looked at his mother. “Mom, close the door. If she’s back, she’s not leaving again.”

Priscilla didn’t get it, but she always listened to her son. She scrambled up, grumbling, to slam the door shut.

Winona didn’t care. She hadn’t come back to leave again.

This was her home. Why should she be the one to go?

If anyone had to leave, it was this lovely mother-and-son duo.

She glared at Zane, emotions swirling in her eyes until all that was left was pure, seething hatred.

Hatred as deep as the ocean.

Zane lounged on the couch, looking her up and down. “So, you’re done pretending, huh?”