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Chapter Thirty-Two: Too Soon
publish date:
2026-04-28 09:20:43
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Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 105: Tuscany
PENELOPE The Tuscan countryside at night was nothing like London. The plane landed in Florence just after ten, and the air that rushed in when the door opened was warmer and slower. It was as if urgency had taken a break here. Adrian's driver was waiting for us on the tarmac. There was a black car idling on private land and a man in a dark jacket who took our bags without saying a word to us. Nora stirred when I lifted her from the seat. She looked out at the stars, which were something London never truly provided. Then she made a small satisfied sound and pressed her face on my neck. "She approves of that," Adrian said next to me. "She approves of everything new," I replied. "She's only eight months old. She hasn't learned disappointment yet." "Lucky her," he said. We drove for forty minutes on winding roads bordered by cypress trees and hillside villages. Every street light seemed carefully placed, enhancing the beauty of the scene. I watched it all through the window an
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 104: He's Not Done
PENELOPE "Who sent this?" I asked. "Because I've seen something like this... like severely." Adrian was still looking at the screen. "I don't know." I reached over and took the phone and looked at the photograph properly. It was taken from inside the hallway. From further down, which meant whoever took it had been in that corridor before we arrived.I mean...they were people before we arrived, there were a bunch of them but whoever took it expected us to be there. "Someone was already there before we walked in," I said. "It was obviously planned." We both stared at the screen, with its light flashing on our faces and highlighting our facial details in the darkness, with a warning that was meant for Adrian. "This is for you," I said. "This message isn't meant to scare you. It's meant to tell you something. But who would send this to you?" I asked. "I think the person wants me to step back," he said. "I think the person wants me to see that photograph and conclude that Jonatha
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 103: Elena at the Gala
PENELOPE "What are you doing here?" I asked it before I turned around completely, sensing someone step close in a way that meant they wanted to be heard but not seen by the crowd.Elena Vale.She wore a dark coat and held the same calm expression on her face.Adrian stood a couple of steps away, talking to someone from his firm. He hadn’t noticed her yet."I needed to speak to you without an appointment," she said. "Appointments give people time to prepare. I prefer the truth before they can dress it up.""Why did you walk into my private event?" I asked.Then she hesitated. "I love your dress. That color suits you.""Elena."She replied. "I'm getting there." She removed a folder from her bag. "Something happened this afternoon that you need to know about.""What is it? Can't it wait till tomorrow? Why now?" I asked."It's urgent. The trust's lawyers withdrew the claim," she said."They withdrew," I repeated."Voluntarily," she said. "The amended filing against Jonathan's assets and
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 102: His own Gala
JONATHAN She walked in with him and of all the things I had prepared for tonight, of all the scenarios I had gone through in the car, and all the versions of this evening I had created and discarded, I was not ready for that. Her hand was on his arm. Adrian Cheng is in my ballroom, at my event, looking more confident than ever. The people I had been talking to were still chatting. I noticed that in the same distant way you do when something loud happens nearby. "Jonathan." Daniel, my events director, touched my arm and spoke in a carefully measured tone. "Are you alright?" "Perfectly," I replied. I set my glass down on the nearest table and I walked away, to the far side of the room and I went to the bar, ordered water, and stood there, breathing like a man who would not create a scene at his own event. He had planned this. Adrian knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it right at my event, with five hundred guests and photographers outside, and the story still r
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 101: The Morning After the Headline
PENELOPE "He planned all this," Adrian said the next morning as he was coming out of his room with a tired voice. Then he stood at his kitchen counter in a robe, his phone in his hand, staring at the glowing headline on the screen. I sat at his kitchen island, staring at my screen too. I had stayed, not because of what happened between us after the alert. By the time the headline had circulated to twenty accounts and my phone had rung four times before midnight, going home felt too risky. "You think Jonathan arranged the photograph," I said. "I know Jonathan has been seen with you in public twice in the last two weeks," Adrian replied. "Both times a photographer showed up at just the right moment." He placed down his phone. "He was there both times at the park and both times, it ended up online." "That's a serious accusation," I said.I picked up my phone and opened the photograph. The bench... The cold park... Jonathan’s arm on mine...My face partly turned away...I ha
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret 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
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret Chapter Sixty-One: Mrs Park statement
PENELOPE "You don't have to sit here." Mrs. Park said this from her hospital bed without opening her eyes. She had an uncanny ability to sense when someone was in the room. "Nora needs you home." "Nora is with Adrian. She's fine." I said There was a short silence "Adrian?" she said. The
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret Chapter Fifty-Nine: Coffee date with Adrian
Adrian's POVTHE NEXT MORNING "You've been awake since four," Penelope stated.She sat across from me in a corner booth of the coffee shop two streets from her apartment. It was nine in the morning. Nora lay in the pram beside her, bundled against the November chill, staring at the ceiling with th
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret Chapter Fifty-Eight: For Whose Sake
PENELOPE "You should have told me about the dinner before you went," I said, drumming my fingers on the kitchen counter. Jonathan looked at me across his kitchen counter. "It was a family introduction," he said. "I told you I was taking her to meet Margaret." "You told me thirty minutes befor
Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret Chapter Fifty-Seven: Margaret knows
JONATHAN *** AT A FAMILY DINNER "She has your grandfather's brow." Margaret said this the moment I placed Nora on the large dining room table next to the bread basket, which wasn’t the safest spot, so I quickly moved her to my lap. "She has her own brow," I replied. "All the Blackwood men h
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