Chapter 4: Not Coming Back

When Naomi took the call, she didn't bother stepping out of earshot of Ethan.

Ethan and Julian barely glanced up, watching Mrs. Doyle with mild disinterest.

As far as they were concerned, Naomi had already thrown her tantrum over the proposal. They were being generous even letting her keep her job title.

Naomi didn't put Mrs. Doyle in an awkward spot. She just answered, calm and even. "The fish porridge takes too long. Give him something else."

She thought back to when Julian was small, how hard she'd worked sourcing rare ingredients just to make sure he'd actually eat, terrified he'd grow up a picky eater.

He'd never once appreciated it. He'd told her outright, more than once, that her porridge wasn't half as good as Chloe's plain white version.

Fine. Let him have plain porridge, then. If that's what he preferred, that's what he could have.

Naomi gave a few more instructions about where Ethan's clothes were organized, then made to hang up until Mrs. Doyle asked, hesitant, "Ma'am... are you and Lily coming back?"

Ethan's eyes flicked up at that.

Naomi's voice didn't waver. "No. Tell Mr. Blackwood he doesn't need to call me for these things anymore. We're getting divorced. It isn't appropriate."

Mrs. Doyle's mouth fell open slightly. Naomi had already ended the call.

She turned to Ethan, apologetic. "Sir... she says she's not coming back."

Not coming back.

Julian's face soured. Mom might not be Aunt Chloe, but she was at least useful good at taking care of things, good at making sure the house ran smoothly. Now she couldn't even manage that much.

No wonder Grandma always said a small-town girl like her never really belonged marrying Dad.

Ethan felt something close to surprise. Naomi had never spoken to him to any of them with that particular edge before.

Then his expression smoothed back into indifference.

If she didn't want to come back, she didn't have to. Chloe could handle school drop-off and pickup in the meantime.

After breakfast, Ethan left for the office. Once Julian was dropped off at school, Chloe made her way to Blackwood Enterprises as well.

As it happened, Naomi was there at the same time, quietly finishing her resignation paperwork in HR.

Her role there had never carried much weight. There were already two other executive secretaries on staff, and between that and her two months a year on Catalina Island, her leaving wouldn't disrupt a single meeting.

Once the paperwork was done, Naomi headed upstairs to hand Ethan the divorce agreement herself.

She pushed open his office door and found Chloe leaning most of her weight against him, his hand resting at her waist, her cheeks flushed pink. The two of them stood close enough that there was no mistaking what the moment looked like.

Ethan's frown deepened the second he saw who'd walked in.

She said she wasn't coming back. So why is she here now?

"Get out," he said, voice flat and cold.

Naomi's mouth curved not quite a smile. Something sharper than that.

Impatient, as always.

She didn't bother arguing. She'd long since run out of energy for that particular fight. She pulled the door shut behind her without another word, walked straight to his assistant's desk, and slid a sealed folder across it.

"Please make sure Mr. Blackwood gets this."

His assistant, Grant, glanced at the folder and went very still. He was one of the only people at the company who actually knew the truth about Ethan and Naomi's marriage.

Miss Hart... a divorce?

Grant chose his words carefully. "Ms. Hart wouldn't it be better to hand this to him yourself?"

"No," Naomi said, indifferent. "Looking at your boss for longer than necessary gives me a headache."

She left without a backward glance.

A few minutes later, Chloe emerged from the same office, smoothing her blouse. Grant watched her go, then finally worked up the nerve to knock on Ethan's door.

"Sir. Your wife left something for you."

Ethan didn't even look up. "Throw it out. I already ate."

He assumed, without checking, that Naomi had dropped off another one of her home-cooked meals her usual way of trying to smooth things over after a fight.

Grant froze for half a second, then set the folder down directly on the desk. "It's not food, sir. It's paperwork. It needs your signature."

He said it as gently as he could. A CEO's divorce wasn't exactly something an assistant wanted to be caught commenting on.

Documents from Naomi?

Ethan barely glanced at the folder. Whatever she'd sent, it was almost certainly something trivial.

At that exact moment, someone from HR knocked, hoping to flag Naomi's resignation. "Mr. Blackwood, about Ms. Hart's paperwork submitted today"

Before they could finish, Ethan signed the folder in front of him without reading a word of it and cut them off. "I don't need updates on her business anymore."

As far as the company was concerned, Naomi Hart was an average employee with an average job. Without the Blackwood name attached to her, there was no reason for him to think twice about anything she did.

Naomi finished her resignation and was out of the Blackwood building within the hour.

Not long after, her phone buzzed Leo.

"Hey, is it true the Sinclairs are coming to claim you as one of their own? People are already talking about it."

"Yeah," Naomi said, unbothered. "It's true."

Leo let out a low whistle. "So it really has nothing to do with Catalina Island? There's been talk the Sinclairs want in on the island development. Do they even know you're the one who's been running that whole project for years?"

"Doubt it," Naomi said.

Catalina's quiet boom over the past several years had, in fact, been entirely her doing. Back when the state first opened the island for private development, Naomi had bought up most of the usable land partly because the climate there had done wonders for Lily's health, and partly because she'd seen the potential before anyone else had. A smaller parcel had ended up in Sinclair hands along the way, likely by pure coincidence.

Leo exhaled, relieved to hear it wasn't some elaborate business play. Outside of her marriage, Naomi rarely lost a hand she was dealt in business.

"Well congratulations on finding your real family, anyway," Leo said, then added, almost as an afterthought, "The Sinclairs are serious old money, good reputation, several sharp heirs running the empire. Only thing is, they raised an adopted daughter after they lost their real one sickly kid, I heard. Wonder how she's going to feel about all this."

Naomi didn't let it bother her.

A family with real values didn't build a legacy by cutting corners on the people who mattered. If the Sinclairs had any sense at all, they wouldn't let her come out of this worse off.

"It'll work itself out," she said. "I'm heading up to Ashford once the divorce is finalized."

If the Sinclairs genuinely didn't want her, she wouldn't grieve over it long. She'd built her own life without them for twenty-six years. She could keep building it without them, too.

That reminded Leo of the divorce itself, and his mind immediately started turning.

Blackwood Enterprises was the biggest player in Crestview and had been courting a Sinclair partnership for months over the Catalina project. If the Blackwoods ever found out the actual owner behind Catalina Island's development was the same woman they'd just discarded...

Leo grinned to himself at the thought, then moved on before Naomi could hear it in his voice.

"Anyway since you're not headed back to the island right away, want to pick up a commission? Something to keep you busy and paid while you sort everything else out."

Naomi had taken on freelance design work like this for years. In architecture circles, the name "A. Hart" carried a reputation most firms were too intimidated to even approach directly.

She'd scaled back the past two years to focus entirely on Catalina's master plan. Now that the island project was essentially finished, the idea actually appealed to her.

"Send me the details," she said.