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Chapter 29: Our First Anniversary After I Disappeared
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2026-08-18 16:32:59
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The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 38: He Gave Up the Chair Before He Knew I Was Coming Back
I was still holding the old plane ticket when the weight of what Roman had just told me finally settled. Becoming Chairman hadn't been some distant possibility he'd casually walked away from. For most of our marriage, it had been the destination toward which everything else seemed to bend, the late dinners, interrupted weekends, and nights when Ashbourne kept him working long after I'd gone to bed."You wanted that position for years," I said. "You practically built our life around getting there.""I did." Roman didn't try to soften it. "I know."That was what made it difficult to understand. He hadn't turned it down after I came home, when changing might have helped him win me back. He'd done it during the second year I was gone, when he had no reason to believe I would ever know about the choice."Then why?"He told me the offer had finally come when he'd spent most of his adult life preparing to receive it. More authority, more control, the final confirmation that he'd become exact
The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 37: He Knew I was Coming Home
"How?" I asked.He explained simply. He hadn't had me followed. Someone connected to Hartwell House, an old contact, had mentioned I'd reached out about retrieving something I'd left behind. That was enough for him to understand I might come back."When I realized you might return," he said, "I bought that last ticket because I decided if you changed your mind, I'd go to you first.""What were you going to say?""I didn't know." He'd rehearsed hundreds of versions over those eleven months, but by then he'd understood that an apology prepared in advance was just another way of controlling the conversation before it started. So his actual plan had been smaller. Find me. Ask if I'd speak to him. If I said no, leave.That mattered more to me than any speech could have."Why were you coming back?" he asked.I hesitated, because the truth wasn't romantic. I hadn't been coming home because I'd forgiven him. I hadn't wanted the marriage restored. I'd simply reached a point where living with u
The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 35: My Husband Was Jealous of The Life I Built Without Him
Roman was home when I got there, and I told him everything. The position was real, it would require one year away, and there was a possibility of building something closer to home afterward."Adrian proposed the partnership," I said.He paused, just slightly, before answering. "Of course he did.""What's that supposed to mean?""Nothing charitable."I almost smiled. "You're jealous again.""I'm beginning to find the man exhausting.""He hasn't done anything to you.""That's part of what's irritating."I called Adrian to clarify the timeline, and he told me he'd raised the idea months ago, long before I'd gone back to Roman, because he believed my work could eventually support something bigger. Roman heard enough of the conversation to understand Adrian hadn't been competing with him. He'd simply been there when Roman wasn't, and that made him go quiet instead of sharper."What?" I asked."I wish I'd been there."Not *I wish he hadn't been.* I wish I'd been.He asked about the commissi
The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 34: My Husband Was Jealous of the Life I Built Without Him
Roman was home when I got there, and I told him everything. The position was real, it would require one year away, and there was a possibility of building something closer to home afterward."Adrian proposed the partnership," I said.He paused, just slightly, before answering. "Of course he did.""What's that supposed to mean?""Nothing charitable."I almost smiled. "You're jealous again.""I'm beginning to find the man exhausting.""He hasn't done anything to you.""That's part of what's irritating."I called Adrian to clarify the timeline, and he told me he'd raised the idea months ago, long before I'd gone back to Roman, because he believed my work could eventually support something bigger. Roman heard enough of the conversation to understand Adrian hadn't been competing with him. He'd simply been there when Roman wasn't, and that made him go quiet instead of sharper."What?" I asked."I wish I'd been there."Not *I wish he hadn't been.* I wish I'd been.He asked about the commissi
The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 34: My Husband Asked Me Where I Wanted To Live
I expected him to tell me to take it if I wanted it.Instead, after a long moment, he asked, "Where would you want to live?""What?""If you took it. Where would you want us to live?"The *us* stopped me. I'd been quietly framing this as a choice between my career and my marriage. He was framing it as a problem our marriage might have to solve."Ashbourne is here.""Ashbourne has planes."I almost laughed. "That's your solution?""No. That's me refusing to accept that geography gets the first vote in my marriage."It was romantic, and I told him so wasn't enough. I didn't want him rearranging his entire life around mine and calling it growth."I don't want that either," he said.Good. Now we actually had a problem instead of a performance."Why are we already discussing who gives something up?" he asked."Because sometimes adulthood isn't romantic, Roman. Sometimes two things don't fit.""Then let's find out whether they fit before we cut one of them off."He admitted he didn't want t
The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist Chapter 33: Tonight, He Was My Plus-One
"How well did he know you?" Roman asked.I recognized the question immediately. "Are you asking because you need information or because you're jealous?""Both."That honesty amused me more than it should have. "We were friends. He gave me commissions when other people were too cautious to trust my name. Maybe he liked me once. Maybe there was a version of something there. But I was still married in every way that mattered to me, even then.""Only friends," he repeated, not quite a question, and I let him sit with it. He didn't have to like it. He just had to hear it.Getting ready that evening, he watched me from the bed while I fixed my earrings, my mind already three steps into the reception."You're nervous," he said."This matters."I'd spent years walking into Ashbourne events where his name opened every door before we'd crossed the threshold. Tonight the invitation had my name on it."Then tonight I behave," he said."That would be historic."He asked what he should know about t
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