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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Author: Debbie
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-21 03:40:44
Naomi

The apartment feels heavier than usual. I move around the living room picking up toys, putting back the couch pillows that were on the floor, wiping down a surface that’s already clean. None of it matters. I am just trying to quiet my mind.

The woman who picked up the call…

Her voice keeps replaying in my head, steady, casual, at ease in a way that suggests she has been in his space more than once.

I tell myself it doesn’t matter. Peter is nothing to me now. We have no relationship, no expectations, no obligations.

But the heaviness inside me says otherwise.

Sophie, beside her notebook, was drawing Button in sky blue crayon. “Do you think he is sleeping, Mom?”

“Probably,” I answer, mustering a smile. “He’s had a long day.”

She nods, satisfied with the explanation.

I envy how easily she accepts things. How simple the world still is for her. How little she understands about disappointment, the grown-up kind, the kind you don’t say out loud because it makes you feel foolish.

My phon
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  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

    NaomiMorning arrives too quickly.I wake before my alarm, the pale gray light just beginning to filter through the curtains. For a few seconds, I lie still, listening to the quiet hum of the apartment—the refrigerator, the distant traffic, the soft rhythm of Sophie’s breathing from her room.I sit up slowly, grounding myself in the familiar routine. Shower. Coffee. Review slides one last time. I move through it all with practiced efficiency, the way I always do when something matters too much to risk emotion.Sophie appears in the doorway while I’m tying my hair back.“You’re up early,” she says, rubbing one eye.“So are you.”She shrugs. “I have spelling today.”“Important day for both of us,” She watches me for a moment. “You’re wearing your serious jacket.”I glance down at the navy blazer laid out on the chair. “Is that what it’s called?”She nods. “You wear it when you have things to explain.”I smile despite myself. “Then it’s definitely the right jacket.”After breakfast, I

  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

    NaomiThe park is louder than I expected.Children run between the slides and swings, their laughter cutting through the afternoon air. Sophie races ahead of me, backpack bouncing against her shoulders, hair pulled into a crooked ponytail she insisted on tying herself.“Mom, watch this!” she calls, climbing the ladder to the slide with determined concentration.“I’m watching,” I answer, settling onto a nearby bench.She pushes off and slides down fast, landing on her feet with a proud grin.“I didn’t even fall.” “You’re very impressive,” she beams, she beams and races toward the monkey bars. I let my shoulders relax slightly as I watch her integrate easily, talking, laughing, already confident in ways I never was at her age.Second grade has been good for her, structure, and friends. A routine that feels stable.I close my eyes for a moment, letting the sounds of the park ground me.But my mind refuses to stay still.Tomorrow.The presentation.Cedars-St. Adrian.The possibility that

  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

    NaomiSunday mornings are supposed to be gentle.Coffee.Cartoons.Sophie curled beside me with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders while I pretend to rest before starting the weekend chores.But today, everything feels tight around the edges, like the air is thinnier. I stand by the kitchen counter, watching the coffee fill the pot drip by slow drip.Sophie clatters around in the living room, humming one of the songs from her class. Her little voice floats through the apartment, warm and distracting in the best way.But my mind refuses to settle. No matter how many times I try to move past yesterday, the memory keeps returning: Peter stepping out of the elevator.His eyes widened slightly.That stillness in his expression, like recognition, was trying to surface.I press my palms into the counter. There’s no way he knows.He can’t. And yet…The fear sits so vividly beneath my ribs it feels like a bruise. “Mom,” Sophie calls, “can we go to the park today?”I blink back into the

  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER TWENTY

    NaomiBy the time I reach the lobby, my pulse still hasn’t settled. I push through the revolving doors and step into the warm LA afternoon. The parking lot stretches out across the front courtyard, dotted with cars and faint sounds of traffic.A gust lifts my hair. I tighten my grip on my portfolio tube. I should get in my car and leave. I should forget the way his eyes searched my face, like I’d left some unfinished sentence floating between us.But my hands shake as I unlock the car. Not because of fear.Because of everything I can’t let myself feel.I settle into the driver’s seat, breathing until my heartbeat stops echoing against my ribs. I place the tube beside me carefully, snapping the seat belt across my chest.Even as I turn toward Beverly, one thought loops in my mind:He didn’t look away.He looked at me like he knew something he wasn’t ready to admit.And I looked back like I wasn't ready to let anything slip.PeterI stand in the hallway longer than I should, staring at

  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER NINETEEN

    NaomiBy Friday morning, LA sunlight paints everything in sharp gold, but it does nothing to quiet the knot in my chest.I’m standing outside Cedars-St. Adrian Medical Center, portfolio tube slung over my shoulder, coffee cooling too fast in my hand. Cars stream through Beverly Boulevard.A delivery truck blocks half the view. Nurses in navy scrubs rush past me, chatting, laughing, living in a world that feels too close to one I’ve spent years running from.Lola’s Voice echoes in my head from last night:“The hospital needs design sketches, Naomi. A site walk-through on Friday. You’ve got this, right?”Right. Because I always “have this.”Because I always do whatever it takes to keep our lives steady.Sophie is at school.I’m here.Everything is fine.Except it doesn’t feel fine.It feels like walking straight into a memory I never wanted to revisit.I take a slow breath and push the glass door.Inside, the hospital smells faintly sterile, like lemon floor cleaner, cold air-condition

  • The Billionaire's Secret Daughter   CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    NaomiBy morning, the air feels dry and sharp, as if Los Angeles has woken up on edge just like I have.​I do everything on autopilot:Dress Sophie.Pack her lunch.Tie her shoes.Drop her off.Then I drive to the office with my heart packed tightly behind my ribs.​The elevator climbs to the fifth floor, and I feel my pulse rise with each ding. I’ve been here every weekday for years, but today the building feels different. Like every corner remembers yesterday.I walk into the design studio, head down, hoping no one says anything about my abrupt exit. Thankfully, they’re all absorbed in their screens, sipping coffee, arguing about color palettes.Normal.Thank God.I slip into my workstation, open my laptop, and force myself into Wednesday’s designs.​My hands move steadily, but my mind keeps drifting.He asked if we’d met.He said my name like it meant something.​I shut the thought down.​I need distance. Space. Silence.Of all days, Lola chooses today to appear over my shoulder.“

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