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The People Who Stayed

Author: Favor V April
last update publish date: 2026-11-14 12:34:11

Katia's POV

Grandma Celeste had decided the dinner would be held at the long table in the estate dining room, the one that seated twenty and had not been used for a family meal in longer than anyone could remember. By seven o'clock every chair was filled, the candles were lit, and the room was loud in the best possible way.

I took my seat halfway down the table with Clara on my lap and looked around, and for a moment I could not speak.

Grandma Celeste sat at the head, sitting tall and regal in
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  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    Home

    Katia's POVThe house was quiet by eleven. We had come home from the dinner at Grandma Celeste's with both children asleep in the back seat, Aiden still wearing one white glove, and Julian had carried him upstairs without waking him.I stood in the nursery doorway and watched Clara sleep. She lay on her back with her arms thrown over her head, the way she always did, completely certain the world would hold her. I thought about the woman I had been not so long ago, with a marriage certificate I could not explain and a secret I was sure would destroy me.I had been so afraid of being found out. I had not known that being found out was what would finally set us free."She is dreaming," Julian said softly behind me."How can you tell?""Her left hand is moving. She does it every time." He came to stand beside me, close enough that I could feel the warmth of his arm. "Aiden did the same thing when he was small. I used to stand in his doorway for an hour.""You still do.""I always will." H

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    The People Who Stayed

    Katia's POVGrandma Celeste had decided the dinner would be held at the long table in the estate dining room, the one that seated twenty and had not been used for a family meal in longer than anyone could remember. By seven o'clock every chair was filled, the candles were lit, and the room was loud in the best possible way.I took my seat halfway down the table with Clara on my lap and looked around, and for a moment I could not speak.Grandma Celeste sat at the head, sitting tall and regal in deep blue, with Julian on her right and Gail beside him, Marcus at her elbow like a man who had finally been given the key to the building. On Grandma's left sat Noah. He sat there with a glass of water, looking like a man trying not to cry in front of company."Eat," Grandma Celeste told him gently. "You are too thin.""Yes, Grandmother," Noah said, in the voice of a boy who had been told the same thing many times before, and the whole table smiled.Delia sat a few seats down, beside my mother.

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband     White Roses

    Katia's POVThe Windsor Estate gardens had never looked like this. Grandma Celeste had spent three weeks arranging everything herself, and by the time the sun began to lower, white roses climbed every trellis and a long aisle of pale stone ran between rows of chairs toward an arch covered in wild jasmine. There were no cameras and no reporters. The gates had been closed since morning, and the only people allowed through them were the ones who belonged.I sat in the front row with Clara asleep against my shoulder, her tiny hand curled in the collar of my dress. Beside me, Delia had come after all. She sat a little apart, quiet and plain in a gray dress, and when our eyes met she gave me a small, careful nod. We had not talked properly in weeks. I decided that today was not the day and that I was glad she was here.On the other side of the aisle, Julian stood at the arch beside Marcus. He had agreed to be best man without being asked twice. Marcus looked pale, and his hands kept finding

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    Nine O'Clock Arrives

    Elliot's POVI woke at seven, ate breakfast, and read the newspaper on the terrace with a cup of black coffee. Anyone watching would have said I was a man with nothing on his mind. I wanted them to say it.The boy had threatened me with nine o'clock, and nine o'clock had come and gone four days ago with nothing. No police. No reporters. Not one telephone call. I had spent the first night arranging my face for it, and by the fourth morning I had stopped bothering. Julian Windsor had lost his nerve, and I had won.I thought about Julian standing in my study four days ago with his hand around my throat and how he had walked away and done nothing at all. I thought about my brother, who had begged me for a seat at a table I built, and about how I had given him one, and how it had been the most generous thing I ever did. I thought about Noah crying on the carpet, and I decided I did not like thinking about that, so I stopped.At eight, my lawyer called, and it was the first time in four day

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband     Nothing to Hide

    Katia's POVWe sat at a long table in a hotel ballroom with white cloths and a row of microphones, and I could feel two hundred cameras waiting like a held breath. Julian sat beside me. He had reached for my hand under the cloth before we even sat down, and I let him, because mine was shaking.At home, Clara was asleep in her crib with Grandma Celeste watching her. She was still a baby, and she would grow up in a world where her parents had told the truth. I held onto that thought the way you hold a railing."Thank you for coming," Julian said into the microphone. His voice was calm. "I am Julian Windsor. This is my wife, Katia Windsor, formerly Katia Kensington. We are going to make a statement, and then we will answer what we can."The room settled. A few phones lifted."Tessa Sterling went live and claimed to know who Catwoman is," I said. My mouth was dry. "She named me. She was right."The silence lasted maybe a second. Then the room exploded, voices overlapping, flashes going of

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    Eleven Years

    Gail's POVThe knock came at nine at night, three short raps, and I knew before I reached the door that I did not know who it was. Nobody came out this far. That was the whole point of the house.I opened it in my old college sweatshirt with my hair tied in a knot, and Marcus was standing on my porch with his hands in his coat pockets."Marcus," I said. "What are you doing here?""I know I should have called." He looked tired, and he looked nervous, which I had never once seen. "I drove out. I did not trust myself to say this over the phone.""Say what?""Can I come in?"I stepped aside. He walked into my kitchen like a man entering a church, careful not to touch anything, and I filled the kettle because I did not know what else to do with my hands."You drove forty minutes," I said, "without telling anyone.""I told no one.""That is not like you.""No." He almost smiled. "It is not."I put two cups on the counter. Behind me the kettle began to tick as it warmed, and I stared at the

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    The Arrangement

    KatiaI woke up to the sound of people singing badly.“Happy birthday to you...” I blinked hard against the sunlight filtering through the curtains, my brain slow to reboot. The voices were getting louder, and for a second, I thought I was dreaming. A really weird, off-key dream.“Happy birthday, d

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    Thrown into the Streets

    ~Katia~“Get out!” my mom screamed, her voice tearing through the hallway like a bomb going off in a small room.The sound hit the walls and bounced back so violently, like the house itself was flinching. Even the air felt startled, buzzing with the kind of tension that makes your skin crawl. My he

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband     Pregnant

    ~Katia~I woke up to the sour taste of bile creeping up my throat, and my legs threw me out of bed before my brain could even catch up. The morning light seared into my eyes like punishment, and I stumbled across the cold floor, my feet slapping against the wood, straight into the bathroom. My knee

  • My Accidental Billionaire Husband    I will cum inside you

    ~Katia~"Do you know how hard I've been holding myself?" I didn't answer because all I wanted was to get laid. I could still feel the ache between my legs. He carried my bridal style and led me to his hotel room. "Now, I can fuck you however I want because you are now my wife, princess." The room

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