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Chapter 13: What's the catch?
Last Updated:
2025-02-26 17:28:06
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My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 14: Unacceptable
Callum's lips twitched slightly, but the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes. “The catch is just do what I say and just do the job well without being stubborn.”I narrowed my eyes, crossing my arms as I studied him. “That’s it?”“Yes,” he said simply. “Take the time off, be with Ryan, and when you come back, you do your job without pushing back on every damn thing I tell you to do.”I huffed, turning my attention back to Ryan, who was finally resting peacefully. The anger that had flared earlier still simmered inside me, but exhaustion dulled its edges. Maybe Callum was right. Maybe I did need this time off. But I hated that he had taken control of the situation without my input.Ryan stirred slightly, his fingers twitching against my hand. His face was still pale, but the tension in his expression had eased. I exhaled slowly, brushing his hair back before looking at Callum again. “Fine.”A flicker of relief crossed his face, but it was gone in an instant. “Good.”The room fell into a t
Last Updated : 2025-02-26My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 15: Food delivery
I walked out of the hospital room, my breath catching as the weight of my mother’s words pressed on me. Ryan is more important than your pride, Athena.I knew that. I’d always known. But knowing didn’t make accepting it easier.The cold air outside stung my skin, a sharp contrast to the warmth I left behind in Ryan’s room. I wrapped my arms around myself, vision blurring as tears spilled over. I hated this. Hated how Callum still had the power to shake me, to make me question everything I had rebuilt.“Athena?”I startled, quickly wiping my tears as Lia approached. Her brows knitted in concern, hands tucked into her coat pockets.“Hey,” she said softly. “You okay?”I forced a smile. “Yeah. Just... fresh air.”Lia gave me a look that said she didn’t buy it. “Athena, you’re a terrible liar.”I let out a shaky breath, shoulders slumping. “It’s just... a lot.”She nodded, tilting her head toward the small café across the street. “Come on. Let’s get coffee. You look like you could use it.”
Last Updated : 2025-02-26My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 16: Don't expect
I placed the bags on the small hospital table, my hands unsteady as I unpacked the contents. The smell of freshly cooked food filled the room—warm soup, soft bread, and a variety of dishes carefully packaged. It wasn’t just any meal. It was thoughtful. Comforting. Exactly the kind of food someone would send if they knew we hadn’t eaten properly all day.I hated how that realization made my chest tighten.My mother sat beside Ryan’s bed, watching me carefully. She didn’t say anything, but I could feel the unspoken words hanging in the air.I sighed, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand. “Do you want some?”She hesitated before nodding. “You should eat too, Athena.”I wasn’t sure I had much of an appetite, but I pulled out a container of soup. As I lifted a spoonful to my lips, the warmth spread through me, comforting in a way I hadn’t expected.We ate in silence, the only sounds the occasional beeping of the monitors and the hum of the hospital outside. Ryan remained asleep, his
Last Updated : 2025-02-26My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 17: Callum's POV
CALLUM’S POVI never expected Athena to forgive me.Not after what I did.I once imagined a future with her—warmth, love, unshakable promises. I gave her a ring, a vow, a dream of something lasting. But I destroyed it.One day, I was hers. The next, I walked away.For Emilia.For a woman with weeks left to live.For a promise rooted in duty, not love.I exhaled sharply, forcing myself to stay present, but the past had its claws deep in me. Ryan’s steady breathing filled the silence, yet all I heard was my own regrets. The way I tore Athena’s world apart for something I thought was bigger than us.Emilia was dying. Fragile. Terrified of facing the end alone. She pleaded with me, begged me to stay. And then there was Richard Rhodes—her father, a man who shaped futures. Marrying into the Rhodes family meant securing a position of power few could dream of.I told myself it was right. That Emilia deserved to spend her last days without fear, that I couldn’t abandon her.But that was a lie.
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CALLUM’S POV 2I arrived at Rhodes Enterprises exactly one hour later, my suit pressed, expression neutral. The weight of Richard’s expectations sat heavy on my shoulders, but I refused to show any cracks.As I stepped into the boardroom, a dozen pairs of eyes flicked toward me—some wary, some calculating, all waiting for me to falter. Richard sat at the head of the table, his gaze impassive.“Callum,” he said smoothly, motioning for me to take my seat. “Let’s begin.”I forced a nod, suppressing the lingering headache from last night’s whiskey. This was my battlefield now. To survive, I had to play the game.The meeting was brutal. The board questioned everything—my competence, leadership, and ability to carry the Rhodes name forward. Richard stayed silent, letting them tear into me like vultures. I answered each challenge with precision, refusing to be rattled.By the time the meeting ended, I’d made one thing clear: I wasn’t just Emilia’s grieving husband. I was the man who would le
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ATHENA'S POVDays passed, and Callum remained the same—dominant, assertive, always in control. I did everything to fulfill my role as his secretary, ensuring his schedule ran smoothly. Yet, despite my efforts to keep things professional, he continued his daily lunch invitations, making it impossible to refuse.Today was no different. As soon as the clock struck noon, his deep voice called out from his office."Let's go."It wasn’t a request—it never was.I swallowed hard, grabbed my bag, and followed. The moment I stepped into his sleek black car, silence filled the space, thick with an unspoken tension I couldn’t define.Our lunches weren’t romantic. They were businesslike—discussions about reports, future projects, and his impossible expectations. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t ignore the way his gaze lingered sometimes, the way his fingers brushed against mine when he handed me the menu.It was dangerous.Back at the office, the stares were
Last Updated : 2025-02-27My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 20: New Friend
I clutched the soft handkerchief in my hands, my breath still uneven as I stared at the man before me. He wasn’t demanding, wasn’t overpowering—just there, offering a quiet sense of comfort I didn’t realize I needed.He leaned slightly against my desk, his hands tucked into the pockets of his tailored slacks. “I’m Daniel, by the way,” he said with an easy smile. “Daniel West. New Chief Technology Officer.”My eyes widened slightly. CTO? He was an executive?I quickly straightened myself, wiping the last traces of tears from my face. “Oh. Um—welcome to Rhodes Company.” My voice was still shaky, but at least I could manage words now.“Thanks.” He chuckled, tilting his head slightly. “Not exactly the best first impression, huh? Finding you crying in your office?”I swallowed, looking away. “I—I don’t usually do this.”“I believe you.” His tone was gentle but certain. “Rough day?”I scoffed, shaking my head. “Something like that.”Daniel nodded as if he understood without needing any expl
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I let out a nervous laugh, shaking my head. "He’s just—" I paused, searching for the right word. "Weird. Controlling. Crazy."Daniel hummed thoughtfully. "Or maybe," he said slowly, "he actually likes you."I turned to him, my mouth opening to protest, but then—"Oh."That single word from Daniel sent a strange chill down my spine."What?" I asked hesitantly.Daniel glanced at me, then smirked. "So… the CEO is my rival, huh?"I blinked. "What are you talking about?"His smirk deepened, but his gaze held sincerity. "I like you too."My heart stuttered."What?" I whispered.Daniel nodded, his grip on the steering wheel tightening slightly. "I was planning to take my time… get to know you before saying anything." He let out a breathless chuckle."But seeing how he looks at you, how he reacts when you’re with someone else—I don’t think I have time."I was speechless.He liked me?My brain was already struggling to deal with Callum’s overwhelming presence, and now Daniel was confessing his
Last Updated : 2025-02-27
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My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 92: Reclaim
The chopper thumped across the burning skyline like a bleeding heartbeat, rhythmic and urgent. I sat beside Callum, cradling him against my side, his blood soaking through my sleeves. He was slipping in and out of consciousness, and every time his eyes fluttered open, I reminded him, “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”Julian sat across from us, checking a battered tablet that had somehow survived the inferno. The glow on his face was pale and grim.“We didn’t get it all,” he muttered. “Their central servers were offline before we reached the lab. Everything in Callum’s head may be the last uncorrupted copy.”Will glanced over his shoulder from the cockpit, voice tense. “And now they know that. Which means we’ve got a target painted on our backs the size of a continent.”I turned my head, looking back at the black column of smoke curling into the sky. Calidus wouldn’t mourn the loss. They didn’t grieve — they adapted. A fallen lab was just another lesson. A reminder to harden the next one.B
My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 91: The Fire we bring
He looked at me like a dying man trying to remember sunlight.The flickering fluorescent light above cast shadows across his face, deepening the hollow beneath his cheekbones, making the bruises bloom darker on his skin. I reached out, but he flinched.“Callum,” I said again, gentler this time. “I know what they’ve done. I see it. But they don’t get to keep you.”He swallowed, and the sound felt deafening in the silence. “You don’t know what I’ve given them, Athena. What I had to give.”Julian appeared behind me, scanning the room with his weapon drawn, tense and ready. “We need to move. This place won’t stay quiet for long.”I looked back at Callum, still shackled to the cot. “We can’t leave him like this.”“There’s no time,” Will’s voice crackled through my comm. “Guards converging. Eastern hallway. You’ve got five minutes, max.”I turned to Julian. “Cut him loose.”Julian hesitated only a second before crossing the room. “He’ll slow us down.”“Then we’ll move slower,” I snapped.Ca
My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 90: He's Alive
And he was trying to reach me.“I thought he died,” Will said, hands trembling as he decrypted the next packet.“He was supposed to,” I whispered. “He wanted us to believe it.”Julian joined us ten minutes later, still bruised but sharper than ever. He scanned the metadata twice before nodding.“This wasn’t sent from the convoy,” he said. “It came from inside the Calidus fallback grid. Probably rerouted through a relay station using a clean identity.”“So he’s behind enemy lines,” I said.“Or being kept alive by someone with an interest in not killing him.”“Leverage,” Will said. “Or… bait.”The thought made my stomach clench.“Either way,” Julian added, “he sent this for a reason. He’s telling you he made it. That he’s waiting.”I looked at the screen again.Echo. Down. Survived.Not help. Not run. Not goodbye.Just three words.A signal in the dark.We flew to Montenegro the next day.Julian tracked the signal’s bounce path to a portside comms hub buried in a crumbling Cold War-era
My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 89: Bring him home
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My Ex, the Widowed Billionaire Chapter 85: We were free
We lay low in Prague.After the Horizon Gaze breach, the world felt thinner — like the distance between reality and illusion had collapsed. Will’s virus was still compiling, Elena had vanished into the underweb to work her channels, and the drive we stole was secured in a modified Faraday crate beneath three feet of reinforced concrete.The fight wasn’t over — it never really was — but for the first time in months, we had a moment to breathe.And it was in that breath that something broke open.It started simple.Callum and I shared a small flat above a shuttered jazz bar, the kind of place that smelled like old wood and rain. The windows overlooked a narrow cobbled street, always damp and glowing with soft amber lights from a broken lantern across the way.We didn’t speak much those first two days. We didn’t need to. Silence had become our currency — quiet glances, shared coffee, his steady presence beside me as I sifted through surveillance dumps and predictive scripts.But the sile
