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Chapter Sixty-Five:
publish date:
2026-03-31 17:21:00
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HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty-Five:
Julian's POVThe ninth was a Saturday. Elise knew something was different. Not what, but different. She watched me with the inventory expression while I made breakfast, cataloging small variations in my movements."Normal day," I told her. She looked skeptical."Mostly normal," I said. She accepted that. Elena had the shelter floor ready by two.I arrived at one to see the space before anyone else. Not to add anything. Just to stand in it for a minute and understand what it was holding that afternoon.The south windows were doing what they always did. The November light was coming through at the angle we'd calculated, holding longer than it should have, the street visible below and the interior invisible from outside.Safe enough to look out. Jo arrived at one-fifteen. She stood beside me and looked at the windows. "Good light for November," she said. "We got lucky." "We calculated correctly." She looked around the room. "You chose well. This space." "It was Nadia's idea.""The best o
HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty-Four:
Nadia's POVWe didn't hire a planner.That was the first decision. No coordinator, no vendor list, no one whose job was to make it look like something. Julian said it, and I agreed immediately because a planner would have turned it into an event and we didn't want an event.We wanted an afternoon.The planning happened in pieces over two weeks.Not scheduled planning sessions. Just conversations that started in the middle of other things. Julian mentioning the location question while making coffee. I was working out the guest list in my head during the subway to work and texting him the final names at eleven AM on a Tuesday.Twelve people.Elena. Priya, Marcus, and Diana. Jamie, Thomas, and Vivian. Richard. Jo. Dr. Osei, who was in New York in November for a working session, said yes immediately. Linda, because she'd written Julian's Columbia recommendation without being asked, and that meant something.And Elise. Obviously Elise."Twelve adults and a ten-month-old," Julian said. "She
HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty-Three:
Julian's POVThe photo stayed up for three days. I knew because David's assistant mentioned it, not to me directly, but to Linda, who mentioned it to me with the specific neutrality of someone delivering information without editorializing."It's generating some attention," Linda said. "The architecture publication that covered the brownstone picked it up. There's speculation about the nature of your current domestic situation.""My domestic situation is my marriage," I said."I know that. I'm telling you other people are deciding what it is based on a sidewalk photo and a vague caption." She looked at me. "Do you want to address it?""No.""Nadia?""Nadia doesn't perform for speculation." I kept my voice even. "It'll disappear in a week." Linda nodded. "The Columbia decision comes in two weeks.""I know.""Don't let noise land in the same window as something important." She went back to her screen. "That's all."Nadia didn't mention the photo again.Not because she was suppressing it.
HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty-Two:
Nadia's POVI didn't think about Serena Cole on Monday.I thought about her on Tuesday. Not obsessively. Not the kind of thinking that derails work or requires management. Just the occasional surface-level appearance of her name in my mind, the way an unwelcome variable appears in a model you thought was complete.Julian had been transparent. He'd told me before he'd read the brief, before he'd made any decision. He'd taken the meeting on his terms, at his office, his assistant's involvement making it professional by structure.I knew all of that.I also knew that I didn't know Serena Cole. I knew them for eight months, four years ago, and they were mutual. I knew David Song had recommended Julian to her, which meant David knew they had history and had made the introduction anyway, which was either thoughtless or deliberate, and I hadn't decided which.I called David on Tuesday afternoon. He picked up on the second ring."Nadia," he said. "You referred Serena Cole to Julian," I said.
HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty-One:
Julian's POVHer name was Serena Cole.I hadn't thought about her in three years. We'd dated for eight months before my marriage to Nadia, the kind of relationship that existed in the space between two people who were convenient for each other and honest enough not to pretend otherwise. It ended cleanly. No damage, no residue.Or so I'd thought.She called on a Monday morning while I was at the office.I didn't recognize the number. I picked up because I was expecting a call from the London team. "Julian." Her voice was exactly as I remembered it. Precise, slightly amused at everything. "It's Serena."I sat back in my chair."Serena," I said."I'm in New York. I heard through reasonably reliable sources that you're at a firm called Meridian now." A pause. "I wanted to reach out. It's been a long time.""Three years.""Almost four." Another pause. "I'm not calling to complicate anything. I have a business proposition. My firm is looking for a CEO consultant for a six month project. Som
HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE Chapter Sixty:
Nadia's POVI woke before Julian.That didn't happen often. He was constitutionally early, up before six most days with the quiet efficiency of someone who'd decided morning was worth being present for. I lay in the dark and listened to him breathing, and looked at the ceiling, and felt the particular quality of a Sunday that had nothing in it.No calls. No deadlines. No travel. Just the apartment and the three of us. I stayed in bed for twenty minutes because I could.Julian was up by seven.I heard him in the nursery, the low voice he used with Elise in the mornings, explaining the day in terms she was assembling into meaning. She had twelve words now. She used them with the precision of someone who understood that language was a tool and tools should be used correctly.I came downstairs at seven-thirty.He was at the stove with Elise in the carrier on his back, which he'd started doing on weekend mornings when she wanted to be held and he wanted his hands free. She was examining th
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