All Chapters of The Billionaire's Regret: Chapter 241 - Chapter 250

My phone rang.A call.Hazel’s name filled the screen, and for a second I just stared at it like the thing had suddenly turned into a living animal in my hand.Hazel didn’t call if she could still ruin someone’s life over text. Hazel was a lawyer, which meant she believed in written evidence, digital trails, and sentences that could be reused in court. If she was calling, something had crossed the line past comfortable.I answered. “Haze?”There was the sound of a car on the other end. Faint. Tires on wet pavement, or maybe just New York asphalt at night, which always sounded like tired people dragging suitcases behind them. Then Hazel’s breath, very short.“Jas,” she said.I immediately stood up from the edge of the bed.The black envelope slipped from my lap and landed softly on the floor, far too polite for something that had just tried to dismantle five years of my life. Several pages were still spread across the sheets, old notary stamps facing the bedroom light like ancient eyes

“I still don’t have registry confirmation,” she said finally. “The Italian counsel server is slow. Or they’re deliberately making everything slow because the entire European legal system was built by men who hated women getting quick answers.”I tilted my head toward the bed. “Is that a legal opinion?”“That’s the opinion of a human being with bad Wi-Fi.”“Good. I prefer that one. Your legal opinion makes me want to throw up on an expensive envelope.”“Do not throw up on evidence.”I looked at the black envelope on the floor. From down here, the Romano Belsky embossing didn’t look elegant.It looked like something waiting underwater.“I’m not going to throw up,” I said. “I’m too pretty to throw up today.”“You’re sitting on the bedroom floor of your ex-husband’s penthouse, except he may not actually be your ex, while holding marriage records he hid in a secret safe.”“I said pretty. Not psychologically healthy.”Hazel let out a short breath.I could picture her face now. Hair tied nea

“I know.” Sebastian chuckled.“Bunny’s sad too.” She lifted Bunny a little. “He says too many people in this house talk serious.”I glanced at Luca. “Bunny has a point.”Luca looked down at his tablet, probably to save himself from laughing in front of his boss, who was currently turning into a walking fortress.Sebastian held out a hand. Poppy immediately took one step forward, then stopped, remembering something.“Daddy bring snack?”“I’ve failed as a father.”Poppy sighed with a heaviness no body that small should’ve been capable of. “Again.”I closed my eyes for a second. “Poppy.”“I’m just honest, Mommy.”“Your honesty tends to carry a knife.”“That’s because I’m a little Russian.”“Unfortunately true.”Sebastian picked her up.The second Poppy settled into his arms, half of her post-short-nap outrage melted away. She pressed her face into Sebastian’s shoulder, Bunny wedged between them, her hair spilling across his white shirt, which probably cost more than a semester of tuition

She looked at me like I’d just offered her an indentured servitude contract. “What kind of fruit?”“Strawberries, melon, grapes. Salma cut them earlier.”“What shape?”I stared at her. “Fruit shape, Poppy.”“No. Yesterday the melon was cut into squares. Too geometric.”Sebastian looked down at her. “Too geometric?”“Yes. I don’t like food that has math.”“It’s melon,” Luca said, unable to help himself.Poppy slowly turned her head toward him. Her bangs were still covering her eyes. Somehow, the look was sharp anyway. “Then you eat it if you like geometry.”Luca raised both hands. “I withdraw.”I sighed and headed back into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and found the bowl of fruit, which had indeed been cut far too neatly. Salma, bless her practical soul, had cut the melon like an architect. I opened a drawer, took out a small knife, and started recutting a few pieces into shapes that made no sense. Half oval, half disaster. If a chef saw them, they’d cry. If Poppy saw them, she’d pr

I stared at my faint reflection in the glass closet door.My hair was tied low, a few strands falling around my face. My lips looked slightly pale. My green eyes were too wide. Somehow, my face looked calm in a way that was almost insulting to the situation.I looked like a woman deciding whether to burn down the building or just its owner.“Does he know?” I asked.Hazel didn’t answer.“Hazel.”“I can’t prove what Sebastian knows right now.”“Don’t talk like a contract clause.”“I can’t prove it,” she repeated, softer this time. “But based on the documents he kept, the safe, the password, and the fact that counsel was waiting for authorization from him, I’d say it’s very hard to believe he didn’t know the process was never completed.”I swallowed. My throat was dry.“He never told me,” I said.“I know.”“He let me call myself divorced.”“I know.”“He saw Adrian’s ring.”“Jas…”“He watched me stand in that room after his stepbrother had just proposed to me.”“And that is exactly why yo