All Chapters of His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

231 Chapters

CHAPTER 21 — THE BUSINESS DEAL

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghThe shop opened at nine.Agnes unlocked the door at eight forty-five and handed Yessica a broom without explanation."Start with the front step," Agnes said. "Edinburgh rain brings everything in."Yessica started with the front step.Pages Poetry was exactly what it looked like from the outside — narrow, floor-to-ceiling shelves, the particular smell of old paper and wood polish, a radiator that worked too hard in one corner and not at all in another. The kind of bookshop that didn't so much invite customers in as dare them.Agnes had hired her on the spot two days ago. No references, no formal interview. Just a look that went on slightly too long and then: Monday, eight forty-five. Don't be late.Yessica hadn't asked why.She hadn't asked anything. She'd just said yes.By ten AM, she'd swept the front step, reorganized the poetry shelf Agnes told her was "a disaster waiting for someone to care enough," and sold a copy of Muriel Spark to a woman in a

CHAPTER 22 — THE PREGNANCY TEST

POV: Yessica | Location: Perthshire, ScotlandHer father's house smelled like lentil soup.Yessica stood at the front door and stood there for five seconds longer than necessary, just breathing it in.She knocked anyway.Theron Lockwood opened the door before she finished knocking.He was sixty-two, gray at the temples, dressed in a wool jumper she recognized from fifteen years ago. He looked smaller than she remembered, or maybe she'd just been carrying too much to notice how people aged.They stood at the threshold, looking at each other.Then he stepped forward and pulled her into his arms without a word.Yessica pressed her face against his shoulder.Fourteen months without hearing his voice.She was crying before she could stop it.The kitchen was warm. The soup was already on the stove — the same recipe her mother had made, the one Theron had learned when Sarah got sick and couldn't stand long enough to cook anymore. Red lentils. Cumin. A squeeze of lemon at the end.Yessica sat

CHAPTER 23 — THE DIVORCE PAPERS

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghAgnes was already holding the paper when Yessica walked in Monday morning.She set it on the counter without a word.Opinion section. Third page.On Starting Over: What It Takes to Leave Everything BehindBy Yessica LockwoodYessica stared at her name in print for a long time.Her real name. Not Sterling. Not Mrs. anything.Lockwood."When did you submit this?" Agnes asked."Three weeks ago. On a whim." Yessica touched the edge of the page. "I didn't actually expect them to—""Well, they did." Agnes folded her hands on the counter. "Go ahead. Read it.""I wrote it. I know what it says.""Read it anyway. It's different when it's real."Yessica read it.It was different when it was real.The words were hers — but seeing them laid out on a printed page, in black ink, in a newspaper people were reading on the bus right now — made them feel like they belonged to the world instead of just to her. The grief and the clarity and the quiet determination she'd

CHAPTER 24 — THE REUNION

POV: Lewis | Location: New YorkPippa was already seated when Lewis walked in.Arms crossed. Back straight. The expression of someone who had agreed to this meeting and was already regretting it.Lewis ordered two coffees at the counter — black, no sugar, the way he'd watched Pippa drink it at a dozen dinners he'd barely been present for — and sat across from her.She didn't say anything.Neither did he.For a long moment, they just looked at each other."Thirty minutes," Pippa said. "Then I'm done.""That's fair."He pulled out a notebook. Small. Leather. Dr. Walsh had recommended it for exactly this kind of meeting.Pippa's eyes dropped to it."What is that?""Homework." He placed it on the table between them. "My therapist told me to learn ten things about Yessica. The real Yessica. Not the version I decided she was." He opened to a fresh page. "I've managed four on my own. I need six more."Pippa stared at him."You're in therapy.""Twice a week. Three months."She said nothing fo

CHAPTER 25 — FRACTURED TRUST

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghThe flat was very quiet.Edinburgh in the pre-dawn held its breath. The bakery below hadn't started yet. No smell of bread. No street noise. Just Yessica, her phone, and Catherine Sterling's voice on the other end."I see you're not going to say hello," Catherine said."What do you want."Not a question. A statement. Yessica pressed her back against the wall, hand flat on her stomach."Directness. How refreshing." Catherine's voice carried that particular quality of someone accustomed to being the most composed person in any room. "I want to speak with my daughter-in-law.""I'm not your daughter-in-law.""You're still married to my son. So yes, Yessica, you are."The use of her name — unhurried, deliberate — made her skin crawl."It's seven in the morning.""I'm aware. I've been awake since five. One of the advantages of not running from anything is that one sleeps rather well." A beat. "But we're not here to discuss my sleep schedule.""Then say wha

CHAPTER 26 — REBUILDING BRIDGES

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghShe called her father before Agnes unlocked the bookshop.Seven-fifteen. The phone rang twice."Jess." His voice was warm. Still half-asleep."Papa." She kept her voice even. "I need you to listen.""What's wrong?""Nothing has happened yet." She stood at the flat window, watching Victoria Street wake up below her. "But Catherine Sterling knows where you live. She's instructed the investigator to locate your address in Perthshire. I got a message last night."Silence.Then — "She already has it."Yessica's stomach dropped. "What?""A car came down the lane yesterday afternoon. Sat at the end of the road for twenty minutes, then left." His voice was steady. Measured. The voice of a man who'd spent years as a secondary school headmaster, who didn't panic easily. "I thought it was someone turning around. But it wasn't, was it.""No.""She's watching the house.""Yes."He was quiet for a moment. Yessica heard the familiar sounds of his kitchen — the kett

CHAPTER 27 — OLD WOUNDS

POV: Yessica | Location: Edinburgh"Come in," Yessica said.Not a welcome. A tactic. Keep her off the street. Control the space.Diana Holt stepped inside Pages Poetry like she'd been invited for tea. Unhurried. Confident. Her charcoal coat didn't lose a crease when she moved.Yessica let the door close behind her and stayed near it.Agnes appeared from the back — tea towel in hand, eyes sharp and immediate. She took one look at Diana's coat, at Yessica's face, and set the towel down without a word. Positioned herself behind the counter.Present. Watching."Catherine speaks highly of the shop," Diana said, scanning the shelves with polite interest. "She said you'd made something of yourself. I can see it.""What does Catherine want?""She wants you to understand your options clearly." Diana turned to face her. Up close, her eyes were shrewd — not cruel, but entirely uninterested in Yessica's comfort. "Before the situation becomes more adversarial than it needs to be.""We spoke twelve

CHAPTER 28 — FORGIVENESS DENIED

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghAgnes drove her.Didn't ask. Just picked up her bag and said, "Get in the car," and that was the end of it.The Volvo smelled like old books and lavender and moved through Edinburgh traffic like Agnes had been navigating these streets her entire life — because she had."What exactly did Fiona say?" Agnes asked, eyes on the road."That there's something she should have told me this morning." Yessica watched the New Town buildings slide past. Georgian stone, iron railings, bare winter trees. "That I need to come in immediately.""But she didn't say what.""No."Agnes said nothing. Drove.Fiona Mackay was waiting at the door of her office when they arrived. Not the reception desk — the door itself. That meant she'd been watching the street."Come in," she said. "Both of you, if you'd like."Agnes came in.They sat. Fiona closed the door, went behind her desk, and folded her hands. She looked like a woman who had decided exactly how much to say and in wh

CHAPTER 29 — SECOND CHANCES

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghAgnes turned onto George Street and didn't speak.Neither did Yessica.The Volvo moved through lunch-hour traffic — delivery vans, cyclists, a tour bus disgorging Japanese tourists onto the wet pavement near the Balmoral. Normal Edinburgh. Normal Tuesday. The world entirely unconcerned with the fact that a man had just watched Yessica walk out of her solicitor's office and then turned away when she saw him."He warned you," Agnes said finally. "About your father.""Yes.""That's not something an investigator does. Not if he's loyal to whoever hired him."Yessica looked out the window. The New Town buildings slid past in gray precision. Georgian and permanent and absolutely indifferent."He's not loyal," she said."To anyone?""I don't know yet."Agnes stopped at a red light. "Are you going to call him?"Yessica already had her phone in her hand. The text from two nights ago still sat in her messages — Graham Wells. I thought you should know.She pres

CHAPTER 30 — THE OTHER WOMAN

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghThe afternoon went slow.That was the problem with knowing. You kept waiting for the door to open.Yessica had shelved the same section of literary fiction twice. Agnes had watched her do it without comment, which was its own kind of comment.Three customers came and went. A woman bought two Hilary Mantels. A student bought a battered Kafka. An older man browsed for forty minutes and left without purchasing anything, which Agnes said happened every Thursday.Normal. All of it normal.Lewis did not appear.By four o'clock, Yessica had almost convinced herself Wells was wrong. That Lewis had come to Edinburgh for something else entirely — a business meeting, a conference. That he'd been at that hotel for reasons that had nothing to do with her.Almost."You're doing it again," Agnes said."Doing what?""Watching the door."Yessica moved a book that didn't need moving. "I'm shelving.""You've shelved that Mcewan three times."The bell above the door chi

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