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Chapter 125: The Father's Call

ผู้เขียน: Evve
last update วันที่เผยแพร่: 2026-05-06 08:28:29

POV: Lewis | Edinburgh

Harrison Sterling picked up on the second ring.

"I have been waiting for this call," his father said.

Lewis stood in Eleanor's conference room while Yessica spoke quietly to Eleanor's assistant in the corridor. He kept his voice low. "You knew."

"I knew Catherine was involved in something she should not have been involved in. I did not know the full scope until this morning." A pause. "Sienna Hargrave reached out to your mother fourteen months ago, Lewis. Not four. Fourte
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  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 273: Sienna's Return

    [POV: Lewis] [Location: Edinburgh]He hadn't slept.Sienna's voice had been the same. Calm, controlled, carrying the particular precision of someone who had spent years planning a conversation and was finally ready to have it.She'd said: "I'm back in Edinburgh, Lewis. I have something you need to hear before Thursday's board meeting. Meet me, or find out the hard way."Then she'd ended the call.That was eleven hours ago.He stood at the kitchen counter now, watching the clock on the cooker. Six forty-three in the morning. In four hours, Claire would walk across a stage as valedictorian and deliver a speech she'd spent three months writing. His daughter, eighteen years old, Stanford-bound, the best thing he'd ever had a hand in building.He was not going to let Sienna take that day from him.Yessica came downstairs in her dressing gown, saw his face, and went straight for the coffee."She called again?" Yessica asked."She didn't need to. She said enough.""What does she want?""She

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    [POV: Lewis] [Location: Edinburgh — Sterling Industries Headquarters]The envelope had been sitting on Lewis's desk since Tuesday.He hadn't opened it.Marcus had left it there without a word, which was worse than if he'd said something. Marcus always had something to say. The silence meant he already knew the answer and wasn't sure how Lewis was going to take it.Lewis picked it up now. Turned it over.Sterling Industries. Board of Directors. Private and Confidential.He dropped it back down.The view from the thirty-second floor was the same as it had always been — Edinburgh's skyline, low and grey and permanent. His father had stood at this window. Lewis had stood at this window for twenty years, making decisions that moved markets, that employed four thousand people, that kept the Sterling name on buildings across three continents.He was forty-two. His children were growing up.And apparently the board had decided that was a problem.Marcus appeared in the doorway at half past f

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  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 269: Would Change Everything

    Lewis didn't tell Yessica about the letter that morning.He told himself he was waiting for the right moment. The truth was he didn't know how to say it out loud yet. That a woman who had never spoken a word to his daughter had written her a letter sealed in Eleanor's office, addressed to Claire Sterling, to be opened at eighteen.Claire was seventeen. Her birthday was in six months.He sat with that all day.***Yessica found him in the study at half past nine that evening, still at his desk, laptop closed, not working.She stood in the doorway and looked at him."What is it?" she asked.He turned around. "Close the door."She closed the door and sat in the chair across from the desk — the chair that had seen every difficult conversation in this house for the last decade. She looked at him steadily, waiting."Eleanor called this morning," he said. "About Catherine's estate. The trust funds are being processed. Standard administrative items.""But?""But she also told me Catherine lef

  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 268: The Morning Lewis Woke Up Without a Mother

    Lewis didn't sleep.He sat on the edge of the bed until four in the morning, then moved to the kitchen, made coffee he didn't drink, and sat at the table in the dark while the city outside did nothing and said nothing and kept being Edinburgh regardless.Catherine Sterling had died at nine forty-one in the evening. Stage four breast cancer, progressed faster than projected. He'd been told to prepare. He had prepared.He had not, it turned out, prepared.Yessica found him at half past four. She came in without switching on the light, pulled her dressing gown tighter, and sat across from him.She looked at him. He looked back."She's gone," he said."I know.""I keep waiting to feel the right thing. I don't know what the right thing is."Yessica reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. "There is no right thing. There's just what you feel.""I feel relieved," he said. "And then I feel horrible about the relief.""That's not horrible. That's honest."He was quiet for a mom

  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 56 — Thursday Numbers

    POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghAgnes's dinner on Sunday had been quiet and warm and exactly what all three of them needed without anyone saying so directly.Lewis had eaten two helpings of everything Agnes put in front of him, which Agnes noted with the satisfaction of a woman whose cooking had

  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 55 — Secondary Panel

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    POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghAgnes arranged everything.This was non-negotiable and Yessica had stopped trying to negotiate it by Wednesday morning when she'd found a handwritten list on the kitchen table titled Saturday — Final with seventeen items already crossed off.The shop closed at noo

  • His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns   Chapter 50 — Regina

    POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghShe stared at the name for three full seconds.Lewis saw her face."What is it?"She turned the phone so he could see the screen.Something moved across his expression. Not guilt — recognition. The particular alertness of someone who has just understood a connecti

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