All Chapters of Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

111 Chapters

91: The Width of One Decision

PENELOPE His hand was warm.That was the first thing I noticed as it was wrapped around mine on top of the blanket, and neither of us moved.I could hear him breathing slowly as if trying hard not to make this bigger than it was, and failing because the effort was loud in its own way.Neither of us spoke for a moment.Nora's cot was on the other side of the room. I could hear her too. The small, even sounds of an eight-month-old who had no idea that the room around her had become something neither of the adults knew how to navigate."You don't have to say anything," he said. "I just wanted to sit here. For a minute."His thumb moved across the back of my hand slowly and I felt it everywhere.That was the problem with Adrian. He never demanded anything, he never pushed. Somehow, that made everything hit harder. I had learned to brace for Jonathan's intensity. Adrian's quietness was the thing that got past all my defenses."I think Jonathan is losing it," Adrian said, not in any way bi

92: The Other Letters

PENELOPE "You went without me." I said to Jonathan as I stood in the doorway of Seraphina's apartment at seven thirty in the morning, with Nora on my hip. Jonathan was already sitting in my sister's living room, holding a cup of coffee that he hadn't drank yet."I told you I was coming," he said."You told me at six AM and then drove straight here without waiting for me," I replied. "Penelope...""We talked about this," I said. "Making decisions without me and you said you understood.""I do understand," he said. "But I also know you were in Adrian's apartment. I wasn't going to wait for you to wake up while Seraphina had time to think about what she wanted to say next."Seraphina stood by the window, looking at us. "Should I leave while you two finish this?" she asked."No," I replied. "Stay. We're done." I looked at Jonathan. "We're not done. But this isn't the time for it."I sat down with Nora in my lap and turned to Seraphina and I said. "You kept two letters out of forty."Ser

93: What Adrian's Father Protected Him From

PENELOPE Adrian read the letter twice.I watched his face the entire time. He was still, absorbing It and it was too big for him to react to immediately."My father was approached," he said quietly. "About a marriage arrangement, with you.""With whoever my father thought would be useful," I said. "I wasn't a person in this letter. I was a contingency."Adrian looked at the page again. "He withdrew completely. And he never told me." He sat and carefully set the letter down, as if it could tear if handled wrong."He used to say," Adrian said slowly, "that the most important decisions in his life were the ones nobody knew about. I thought he meant something romantic, like a speech for a wedding toast. I didn't think he meant this.""He protected you, completely. From ever being part of whatever my father was building.""By refusing to let me become a piece of it," Adrian said. "If he had said yes, If he had agreed...""Then you might have been the one my father placed to be controlled

94: Gone

PENELOPE The voicemail: 'This is Jonathan. Leave a message.'I called again but it ended up in the same result.I stood in the hallway outside an apartment that was no longer Seraphina's. My heart raced in a way that felt wrong. I tried calling Marcus's old number but I remembered that he was in custody. So, I called Henry.And he answered."Henry," I said. "Where is Jonathan?""He's at the apartment, miss," Henry said. "On Crestlane. I dropped him there two hours ago with the baby.""He's not there," I said. "Someone else has moved in.""That's not possible," Henry said after a brief silence. "I saw him go inside myself.""Henry," I said. "I am standing outside the door right now. There is a different woman living here. She signed a lease yesterday."Henry was silent. "I'll come to you," he said. "Now."I ended the call and I stood in the hallway.The new tenant watched me from her doorway. Her expression was careful and a bit nervous, like someone caught in a stranger's emergency.

95: The New Address

PENELOPE "Send me the address," I said. "Right now.""Penelope...""Seraphina." My voice had gone past fear into a flatter tone and it sounded more dangerous. "Send me the address or I will call the police this second."She sent the address after much hesitation."Don't bring the police," Seraphina said. "Please. Elena hasn't done anything yet. She's just talking. If you bring the cops through that door then she'll panic and panic is the thing that actually gets children hurt.""You don't get to tell me how to protect my daughter," I said."I know," she said. "I'm just saying that anyway."I ended the call and Adrian was already in the corridor outside Jonathan's penthouse when I came out, having let himself in with whatever access he still had from being here before."I heard most of that," he said. "I called Henry on the way up.""We need to go," I said. "Now.""I'm driving," he said.***The new building was smaller than Seraphina's old one. A converted townhouse with four units,

96: What I Built

PENELOPE "Let me see it." Jonathan demanded I held my phone out to Jonathan. He read the notice and his jaw tightened with every line. "This is filed in the wrong jurisdiction," he said. "Well, that's what I think. They hope you won't catch it in time to respond before they enter a default judgment." "Tessa will catch it," I said. "Tessa needs to see this in the next ten minutes," he said. I called her and she answered immediately, already aware. Her voice had the urgency of a lawyer who has just discovered something serious. "I'm looking at it now," she said. "They've moved too quickly. This isn't a standard procedure for a claim this size." "What does that mean?" I asked. "It means someone wants this resolved fast," Tessa said. "Before you have time to build a full defense. Before public opinion has time to turn. Penelope, I need every document related to the original marriage contract within the hour." "I have the letters," I said. "Seraphina found them." "Send them to

97: What Marcus Wanted

Marcus's POVThe interview room had this old coffee smell.I had been in this room four times now. Each time, the detective sat opposite me with the same patient, unreadable expression, waiting for me to give her something she didn't already have."You've cooperated fully," Detective said. "The names, dates, the recordings. Your lawyer says you're hoping for a reduced sentence.""I am hoping for that," I said."Then help me understand something," she said. "Why did you do it? You worked for Jonathan Blackwood for six years. You were trusted completely. And two years ago, you started reporting his movements to someone working for a dead industrialist's old grudge." She leaned forward. "What did you actually want, Marcus?"I had asked myself that question more times than she could imagine."I wanted to matter," I said."For six years," I said. "I managed his calendar, his calls, his crises. I was in every important room of his life and I was invisible in all of them. He never once asked

98: The Last Person Standing

PENELOPE "You knew about this," I said to my mother who stood in her doorway in a pale dressing gown, her face carrying the shock that she had been woken by a knock she expected but hoped wouldn't come. "Penelope," she called "Don't say my name like that," I said. "You signed it two days ago while I was sitting in that townhouse trying to protect my daughter and my company from everything your lawyers were already filing." She stepped back as I came in. I had driven here alone. Jonathan had offered to come and even Adrian had offered to come too but I had told them both no. She moved to the sitting room and sat down as if her legs had decided the situation was too much for standing. The room looked the same as it always had. It had this orderliness of a woman who had never had to choose between comfort and anything else. "I didn't direct them to file, I authorised the review of the original document. I didn't know they would move so quickly." "You signed an authoris

99: Together on Paper

PENELOPE "They can't do this," Jonathan said standing. I hadn't seen him react that way. Now, he stood with his phone in his hand, reading the amendment with a stillness that suggested he was on the verge of a breaking point. "They can argue that we were still acting as a financial unit when Nora was conceived," I said. "The original contract included a marriage clause and a child clause. A child born within the specified time frame brings back the full financial terms for both parties." "But we were divorced," he replied. "The contract predates the divorce," I insisted. "They say a family agreement is more important than a regular divorce if a child wants the family to stay together. " I heard myself say it. "Nora's birth is being used as proof that we never completely left the terms of the arrangement." "They're using our daughter to tie us back together financially," he said. "Yes," I agreed. "That's the most planned thing I've ever heard," he said. "My father set it up th

100: Decision about the proposal

PENELOPE "You're not going to marry him, are you?" Adrian asked this as soon as I stepped through his door. It was something he had decided that needed to be said right away, somewhere between my phone call and my arrival. I stopped at the entrance of his other apartment. The space looked different at night. The floor-to-ceiling windows of his Mayfair penthouse displayed the city in its dark beauty, every light shining brilliantly, the kind of view that cost more per square foot than most people earned in a year. "Adrian," I said. "I mean it," he replied as he moved away from the door toward the window. The city sparkled behind him. He was wearing a dark cashmere sweater, and his reading glasses sat pushed up on his head, looking like someone who had been alone in thought before I arrived. "You spent three years in a marriage built on someone else's plan. You're not going back into one." "Nobody has told me to make a decision yet," I responded. "Jonathan is going to te

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