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CHAPTER 74

Author: Penny
last update Last Updated: 2025-05-18 01:25:00

Somewhere in the Mediterranean – 2 Weeks Later

The yacht cut through turquoise waves, the 120-foot vessel skimming the water with the effortless grace of old money. Salt spray stung my face as I stood at the stern, watching our wake carve a transient path through the Mediterranean. The horizon stretched endlessly, blue meeting blue in a seamless boundary that promised freedom, anonymity, escape. Two weeks since Dubai. Two weeks since Michael Coleman's empire collapsed into dust and federal indictments. Two weeks since the world's financial press had exploded with headlines about offshore accounts, securities fraud, and a body never recovered from the Persian Gulf.

Griffin leaned over the railing beside me, his lanky fourteen-year-old frame stretching outward with dangerous enthusiasm as a pod of dolphins suddenly appeared alongside the yacht. His delighted laughter—a sound I'd heard so rarely during the custody battles—echoed across the water.

"It's faster than Daddy's boat!" he cro
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  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 74

    Somewhere in the Mediterranean – 2 Weeks Later The yacht cut through turquoise waves, the 120-foot vessel skimming the water with the effortless grace of old money. Salt spray stung my face as I stood at the stern, watching our wake carve a transient path through the Mediterranean. The horizon stretched endlessly, blue meeting blue in a seamless boundary that promised freedom, anonymity, escape. Two weeks since Dubai. Two weeks since Michael Coleman's empire collapsed into dust and federal indictments. Two weeks since the world's financial press had exploded with headlines about offshore accounts, securities fraud, and a body never recovered from the Persian Gulf.Griffin leaned over the railing beside me, his lanky fourteen-year-old frame stretching outward with dangerous enthusiasm as a pod of dolphins suddenly appeared alongside the yacht. His delighted laughter—a sound I'd heard so rarely during the custody battles—echoed across the water."It's faster than Daddy's boat!" he cro

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 73

    Safe House, Geneva – 11:47 PM Griffin slept soundly in the next room, his breathing soft and even, monitored by the discreet medical equipment James had arranged. Moonlight filtered through bulletproof glass, casting long shadows across the Alpine chalet's living area where Maria, James, and I hunched over blueprints and documents spread across a heavy oak table. Outside, the wind whispered through pine trees, masking the subtle sounds of the security team patrolling the perimeter—professionals James had hired from his days working in high-risk markets in Southeast Asia."Michael's lawyers are already filing motions to challenge Griffin's medical autonomy," Maria muttered, tapping a freshly delivered legal brief with a perfectly manicured nail. The red lacquer caught the light from the lamp overhead, looking almost black in the dim room. "Claims you're unfit to decide. That you've been influenced by 'radical medical privacy advocates' and are endangering Griffin's life by denying hi

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 72

    Undisclosed Location – 48 Hours Later The news blared from the television mounted on the wall of our secure apartment, the anchor's voice carrying the practiced gravity reserved for world-changing events. Outside, Paris continued its everyday rhythm—café patrons lingering over espresso, tourists photographing the distant Eiffel Tower, businesspeople hurrying along rain-slicked streets. None of them aware that just three floors above a patisserie renowned for its éclairs, we were watching the culmination of a decade-long chess match."BREAKING: Notorious Billionaire Michael Coleman Found Dead in Cell—Authorities Suspect Suicide."The words scrolled across the bottom of the screen in multiple languages as footage played of the Geneva detention center where Michael had been held since his arrest at the WHO conference. The arrest that had been broadcasted live across financial news networks worldwide—Michael lunging across the stage toward Griffin during the panel on "Ethical Boundaries

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 71

    Safehouse, Geneva – 11:47 PM Griffin slept soundly in the next room, his breathing soft and even, monitored by the discreet medical equipment James had arranged. Moonlight filtered through bulletproof glass, casting long shadows across the Alpine chalet's living area where Maria, James, and I hunched over blueprints and documents spread across a heavy oak table. Outside, the wind whispered through pine trees, masking the subtle sounds of the security team patrolling the perimeter—professionals James had hired from his days working in high-risk markets in Southeast Asia."Michael's lawyers are already filing motions to challenge Griffin's medical autonomy," Maria muttered, tapping a freshly delivered legal brief with a perfectly manicured nail. The red lacquer caught the light from the lamp overhead, looking almost black in the dim room. "Claims you're unfit to decide. That you've been influenced by 'radical medical privacy advocates' and are endangering Griffin's life by denying him

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 70

    Geneva Medical Institute – 10:03 AM The silence in the room was suffocating. The antiseptic smell of the hospital hung in the air, mingling with the faint scent of coffee someone had abandoned on the doctor's desk. Rain pattered against the windows, blurring the view of Lake Geneva into a watercolor of grays and blues. Griffin's small frame trembled beneath the oversized hospital gown, but his gaze never wavered. Those eyes—Michael's eyes—fixed on mine with a resolve no fourteen-year-old should possess."Griffin," I began, my voice barely steady despite the hours I'd spent rehearsing this conversation in my head. "This isn't just about you. It's about making sure you have a future—""No, Mom." His voice was quiet but firm, carrying the weight of someone who had thought through every angle, every consequence. So much like me it made my chest ache. "It's about me not being his experiment anymore."The words hung in the air, a truth we'd all been dancing around since discovering Michae

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 69

    Geneva Medical Institute – 9:47 AM The Institute's conference room overlooked Lake Geneva, the water's pristine blue surface belying the moral murkiness of the conversations taking place inside. Morning sunlight streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the tense faces gathered around the polished table.Dr. Philippe Lefevre, the Institute's director and one of Europe's foremost geneticists, adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses as he pointed to the CRISPR chart displayed on the wall screen. His French accent became more pronounced with his evident excitement about the scientific possibilities at hand, despite—or perhaps because of—their ethical implications."We can edit the defective sequence at the cellular level," he explained, gesturing to a complex molecular diagram that showed the precise location of Griffin's genetic anomaly. "But we need unaltered DNA for the template. The procedure requires a baseline to work from—a 'healthy' version of the same genetic marker.""

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 69

    Private Jet – En Route to Geneva – 5:19 AM Griffin slept fitfully across two seats, his body finally surrendering to exhaustion after thirty-six hours of continuous alertness. I'd draped my cashmere wrap over him, tucking it around his shoulders the way I used to when he was small. Even in sleep, his brow remained furrowed, as if his mind couldn't escape the labyrinth of revelations we'd uncovered in Iceland.The Gulfstream G650 cut through the pre-dawn darkness over the Atlantic, the cabin lights dimmed to allow him rest. In the soft ambient glow from the screens, Maria's face looked haggard, the perfectly maintained facade of Michael Coleman's trophy wife long since abandoned. Her fingers moved with surprising dexterity across the keyboard as she decrypted more files from the server dump we'd extracted minutes before the facility's security protocols initiated a complete purge."This goes back generations," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as she pulled up Coleman family

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 67

    Reykjavik Server Farm – 3:41 AM The neon glow of the countdown timer pulsed like a heartbeat—02:08:37—as Griffin's small hands trembled on the keyboard. The harsh industrial lighting of the server farm cast everyone's faces in a ghostly pallor, the mechanical hum of cooling systems providing a constant backdrop to our desperate race against time. Outside, Iceland's winter darkness pressed against the reinforced windows, as if the night itself was trying to seep into our sanctuary.Griffin's face, so much like Michael's in structure but possessing a gentleness his father had long since lost, was illuminated by the blue light of the monitor. Despite being only fourteen, he navigated the complex security systems with an intuition that bordered on supernatural. Three days without proper sleep had left dark circles under his eyes, but his focus never wavered."It's fake," he whispered suddenly, his voice cracking from disuse as he zoomed in on the footage that had haunted my nightmares f

  • My Billionaire Ex-husband Won't Call It Quit   CHAPTER 67

    Reykjavik Server Farm – 3:33 AM The Arctic wind howled through the blown-out skylight like a wounded animal, carrying ice particles that stung exposed skin and transformed breath into ghostly plumes. The temperature inside the cavernous server room hovered just above freezing—warm by Icelandic standards for mid-October, but cold enough to make my fingers stiff as we picked through the ruins of what had once been Michael Coleman's most secure data repository.Maria's gasoline had done its job—almost. Three-quarters of the server racks were charred beyond recognition, melted plastic and warped metal forming grotesque sculptures in the beam of our tactical flashlights. The sprinkler system had engaged before the fire could consume everything, leaving pools of freezing water that reflected our movements in fractured patterns. The combination of fire, water, and sub-zero temperatures had created a technological graveyard more effective than any military-grade data destruction protocol.J

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