LOGINShare
CHAPTER 85: The Music Box
publish date:
2026-10-13 17:01:15
Latest chapter
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 90: The Music Room
Tracy POVNoah turned the little brass key over in his fingers for a long while after he told me where it belonged. The lamp threw a soft circle on the carpet, and the house was so quiet that I could hear the music box ticking as it cooled on the table. I waited until he looked up.“We could go tomorrow,” I said. “After school. Marisol can pick up Samuel.”“Are you sure? That house frightened you.”“It did.” I took a breath, because the old habit was already tugging at me to say I was fine. “I’m still a little scared of it. When that candle went out in the window, I thought my heart would stop. But I would rather be scared next to you than stay home wondering what is behind that door.”He set the key down and took both my hands. “Then we go at your pace. If you want to leave in the first five minutes, we leave, and I won’t ask why.”“You might ask why.”“I’ll ask once, gently, and then I’ll drop it.”I laughed, and the knot in my chest loosened. He pulled me against his side, and I re
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 89: Pancakes and Patience
Noah POVI woke before the alarm on Sunday morning and found myself looking at the dresser. The music box sat where I had left it, lid closed, with the cream-colored envelope hidden inside. I had not slept badly. I had simply spent the early hours imagining every sentence my grandmother might have written, and none of them had been calming.“You’re staring at it,” Tracy said, without opening her eyes.“I’m not.”“You’ve been staring for ten minutes. I can feel it. It’s like sleeping next to a very polite lighthouse.”I laughed and rolled toward her. “I’m only looking.”“We said Sunday evening.”“I know. I’m being patient.”“That’s patience?” She cracked one eye open. “You look like a dog watching a sandwich.”“A very well-trained dog.”She pulled the blanket over her head, laughing, and I kissed the top of the lump she made. Then I got up and went to make breakfast, partly because I had promised pancakes and partly because the kitchen was the one room where I couldn’t see the dresser.
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 88: The Secret Ending
Tracy POVI stayed at the railing and watched my husband-to-be walk across the grass with a wooden music box in his hands. He sat down on the bench beside the woman in the gray coat, and I couldn’t hear a word of what they said. I saw her reach into her pocket. I saw Noah go very still, and then the oak branches moved in the wind and hid them both from view.For a moment I felt it, that old, familiar slide. It was the sensation of standing at the back of the photograph while everyone I loved stood in the light. I knew it was foolish. Noah had asked me, with his eyes, whether I minded, and I had told him to go. But knowing a feeling is foolish has never once made it leave.Marisol came and leaned on the railing beside me with her hands wrapped around a paper cup of tea. She didn’t say anything. She only looked out at the carousel, where Daniel was circling the entrance with his cart and ringing his little bell at squirrels.“I’m doing the thing,” I said finally.“What thing?”“Where I
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 87: The Thank-You Card
Noah POVTracy didn’t wake me gently. She sat on the edge of the bed in my shirt with the music box in both hands and said my name three times before I opened my eyes. The room was dark, and the clock said ten past midnight. When I saw her face, I sat up at once.“Nothing is wrong,” she said quickly. “I promise. But you need to see this, and I didn’t want to wait until morning.”She held out a small yellowed square of paper. I unfolded it under the lamp, and the first thing I recognized was the handwriting. My grandmother wrote in loops that leaned to the right, as if every letter were trying to hurry to the next one. I read the page of music first, then the note beneath it. When I reached the last line, I had to stop and read it again.She has been waiting a very long time to be thanked.We went to the kitchen so we wouldn’t wake Samuel. Tracy put the kettle on while I sat at the island with the note flat in front of me, and neither of us said anything until she set a mug at my elbow
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 86: Gifts for a Brother
Tracy POVSamuel woke us before sunrise to report that Elias had a secret ending, and by the time I made it to the kitchen, he had already written a list of presents for his brother on the back of an envelope. It said dragon, hat, cookies, rabbit’s friend, in letters that leaned downhill. I read it over his shoulder and told him it was the best list I had ever seen, and he nodded like a man who agreed.Marisol was folding laundry at the island when I came back from the shower. She had a basket of small socks in front of her and a cup of tea at her elbow, and she smiled and slid a second cup across the counter before I could ask. I sat down, picked up a towel, and began to fold. For a while neither of us said anything. It was the kind of quiet that only comes with someone you have stopped being nervous around.“Can I ask you something?” I said.“Of course.”“Why did you keep going back? To Elias, I mean. All those years, when nobody was paying you.”She turned a sock right side out and
The Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby CHAPTER 85: The Music Box
Noah POVI stood in the hallway for a long time after the humming faded. Tracy waited beside me without asking questions, and when Samuel’s breathing finally slowed into the soft rhythm of sleep, she slipped her hand into mine and drew me back toward the bedroom. I let her lead me. My mind was somewhere else entirely, in a warm, dim room with a woman who smelled of lavender and old paper.“Do you want to wake him?” she asked quietly. “Ask where he learned it?”“I want to,” I said. “Very badly. I want to shake the whole answer out of the night.”“But?”“But he’s five, and he’s asleep, and he did nothing wrong.” I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand. “I’ll ask him in the morning. Gently. Over breakfast, like a normal father.”She smiled at me in the dark. “That sounds like growth.”“It sounds like a man who is too tired to be bossy.”“I’ll take it either way,” she said, and she kissed my shoulder and pulled the blanket up over both of us.Samuel was in a wonderful mood at breakfast.
You May Also Like
Married at First Sight
Gu Lingfei32.7M viewsSir Ares, Goodnight!
Yan An1.1M viewsThe Divorced Billionaire Heiress
I Wanna Eat Meat16.3M viewsTo Be Yours Again
Taylor1.0M viewsRegret After The Divorce
Abbymicah31 viewsDivorced, I Became a Billionaire Heiress
Pretty Devil104 viewsThe Billionaire Who Erased My Name
A. R. Isola34 viewsI REBORN 14 DAYS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE AND MET A WEREWOLF
Rejoice Ezeh151 views
