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2026-05-24 21:45:01
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Reborn as the True Billionaire 128
Morana’s POVWe stayed at the farm for another week after the anniversary, longer than we’d originally planned and somewhere in the quiet mornings. The ridiculous chicken chaos and the slow unhurried evenings, I found myself thinking about what came next in a way that had nothing to do with strategy.“I want to do something,” I said one morning, sitting on the porch steps with coffee going cold in my hands.Tristan looked up from where he was attempting, with limited success, to repair a section of fence Gerald had apparently decided needed reorganizing.“What kind of something?”“We got married in fifteen minutes at City Hall. With witnesses who were basically strangers, for reasons that had nothing to do with choosing each other and everything to do with survival.” I grunned at him. “I want to do it again. Properly. Not legally, we don’t need that part twice. Just for us.”He set down the fence post he’d been holding and came to sit beside me on the steps.“A ceremony,” he said.“Sm
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Tristan’s POVThe gala has been exactly one year ago tonight. I hadn’t planned anything extravagant. No garden with fairy lights, no private jet, none of the grand gestures I’d apparently developed a habit of over the past months. Just the farmhouse, quiet, the fireplace lit against the early autumn cold and a bottle of wine I’d chosen myself instead of asking Reid to source something impressive.Morana was upstairs changing out of her farm clothes and I stood in the kitchen doing something I hadn’t done in longer than I could accurately remember. Nothing. Just standing there waitin and letting the quiet exist without filling it with a phone call or a report or the next necessary task.A year ago tonight I’d watched her walk into that ballroom in a dress she hadn’t worn in five years and something in me had recognized her before she’d even reached the entrance, some part of my mind that had been cataloging her for six years finally understanding that the distance I’d maintained was ab
Reborn as the True Billionaire 126
Morana’s POVHe cancelled Friday at 4 PM, forty minutes before we were supposed to leave for the farm, standing in the doorway of his office with his phone still in his hand and an expression I recognized immediately because I’d spent five years learning to read exactly this look on someone else’s face.“Reid needs me for a call,” he said. “European investors, something about the Milan acquisition timeline. I have to take it.”“Now?”“It’s urgent.”“Everything’s urgent to someone,” I said and I heard the edge in my own voice before I’d fully decided to let it show. “That’s what makes it urgent. You taught me that.”“This is different.”“How?”“It’s a genuine timing issue, not something Reid could have anticipated. The investors are in a different time zone, this is the only window that works for everyone.”I felt something cold settle in my chest, familiar in a way that had nothing to do with Tristan specifically and everything to do with five years of learning that plans meant nothin
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Morana’s POVDr. Storms ran the Friday board meeting without me for the first time in months. I found out how it went from a text summary Felix sent afterward instead of sitting through it myself and something about that felt like an actual milestone worth acknowledging.She handled the Hendricks acquisition question better than you would have. Don’t tell her I said that. Felix texted.I heard that, came Yemi’s response in the same thread, apparently added by Felix without my knowledge. And thank you, I think.I set the phone down and looked at Tristan across the kitchen island, where he was reading something on his own phone with an expression that suggested Reid had sent something equally reassuring.“Rothschild’s quarterly numbers came in,” he said. “Reid presented them himself. Investors didn’t ask a single question about my absence.”“Should we be offended by that?”“Deeply offended,” he said, not looking up. “Apparently we’re replaceable.”“Apparently we built something that do
Reborn as the True Billionaire 124
Morana’s POVHe knocked, which was ridiculous because it was his own penthouse. I was standing in the living room when I heard it and for a full three seconds I genuinely didn’t understand what was happening until I looked through the peephole and found Tristan Rothschild standing in the hallway outside his own front door holding a single flower like he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it.I opened the door and just looked at him.“You knocked” I stated the obvious. “It’s a first date,” he said, entirely serious as though this explained everything. “I thought the door should be part of it.”“You live here.”“I’m aware.”I looked at the flower. It was not a bouquet. Not the dozen roses I half expected given his general approach to grand gestures. Just one flower, something pale and slightly crumpled at the edges like it had survived a journey it wasn’t fully prepared for.“Is that a carnation?” I tried to hide my smile. “It’s whatever was closest to the register.”“You panicked
Reborn as the True Billionaire 123
Morana’s POVDr. Patricia Hale’s office was smaller than I expected, warm in a deliberate way that felt designed to counteract exactly the kind of controlled composure both Tristan and I brought into every room we occupied professionally. Two chairs angled toward each other instead of a couch, which felt oddly more intimate than I’d anticipated.I sat with my hands folded in my lap, aware of exactly how corporate my posture looked and glanced at Tristan beside me, who’d adopted the same careful stillness he brought to board meetings, jaw set, expression unreadable.“Neither of you needs to perform anything here,” Dr. Hale said, watching us both with the particular patience of someone who’d clearly seen this exact tension in every powerful couple who’d ever walked through her door. “This isn’t a negotiation. There’s no outcome you need to secure.”“Old habits,” I said.“Understandably.” She had a legal pad in her lap, though she wasn’t writing yet, just watching us both with an attenti
Reborn as the True Billionaire 4
Morana’s POV Xavier mentioned the gala the same way he mentioned everything he didn’t want me involved in which was right before leaving the room. It seems like he wanted to take his LEGAL wife to go there. “It’s a pharmaceutical fundraiser and too formal. You’d be bored.” He adjusted his cuffl
Reborn as the True Billionaire 3
Morana’s POV By the time Xavier came down for breakfast, I was already seated and was waiting for him. Exactly where I was supposed to be and how it has been for years. I came down early to make sure everything was ready then waited. “The Cook really made my favorites.” I glanced up as he walke
Reborn as the True Billionaire 2
Morana’s POV I felt air slam into my lungs in a way it does when one drowned and came back to life. I gasped sharply as my body jerked upright. My chest heaved my fingers clawing at the sheets beneath me as if I were still drowning in that cold darkness. That taste of nothingness that felt like
Reborn as the True Billionaire 1
Morana’s POV “Your name isn’t registered as his wife.” The clerk’s voice was flat as though she was telling me the weather. I blinked slowly because I was certain I’d misheard her. There’s no way she is talking about my marriage. “I’m sorry?” I let out a small laugh glancing briefly at my law
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