All Chapters of The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

177 Chapters

The Hope

POV: ISLA WINTERS ROMANO (Flashback - Six Years Earlier, Age 22)For three weeks after Jaxon discovered me coding, I was almost happy.Not the kind of happiness I'd dreamed of when I imagined marriage, no romance, no intimacy, no late-night conversations about dreams and fears and all the things married people were supposed to share.But I had purpose. I had something to do that mattered. And for the first time since I'd said "I do," Jaxon actually looked at me like I was a person instead of furniture."This database structure," he'd say, walking into his office where I now worked openly during the day. "Can you optimize it?""Yes. I'll have it done by tonight.""The API integration is causing lag. Can you fix it?""Already done. I sent you the files an hour ago.""We need a new feature for the mobile app. Can you…""On it."I said yes to everything. Worked sixteen-hour days. Coded until my eyes burned and my fingers cramped. Rebuilt his entire platform from the ground up, turning Ape

The Sister

POV: JAXON ROMANO (Flashback - Six Years Earlier, Age 28)My father survived the heart attack.Three days in the hospital, two stents, and a lecture from his cardiologist about stress management that Dante Romano completely ignored. By the time he was released, he was already back on his phone, barking orders, running his empire from a hospital bed."This changes nothing," he told me on the day they discharged him. "The business continues. Your business continues. Don't let this scare you into weakness.""You almost died.""But I didn't. And neither will you, if you stay strong. Stay focused. Don't let sentiment cloud your judgment."He meant Isla. He always meant Isla when he talked about sentiment and weakness and distraction."She's working on Apex," I told him. "She's actually brilliant. The code she's writing…""I don't care if she's Einstein. She's still a wife. Still a potential liability. Use her skills if they're valuable, but don't get attached. Don't let her become somethin

The Heir

POV: ISLA WINTERS ROMANO (Flashback - Six Years Earlier, Age 22)I'd been pregnant for two weeks before I finally found the courage to tell him.Two weeks of morning sickness that I hid by claiming I had a stomach bug. Two weeks of exhaustion that I blamed on late-night coding sessions. Two weeks of secretly touching my still-flat stomach and imagining the moment when I'd tell Jaxon and everything would finally change.The night of the gala had been hard. Seeing Vivian, beautiful, confident, everything I wasn't, flirting with my husband while I stood there in my discount dress feeling inadequate. Watching Jaxon pocket her business card like it meant something.But he'd also called me brilliant. Had defended me, in his way. Had looked at me in the car like he might actually see me as more than just a coding machine.It was enough. It had to be enough.And now I had news that would change everything.I planned it carefully this time. No special dinner, no candles, no building up expecta

The Incident

POV: ISLA WINTERS ROMANO (Flashback - Six Years Earlier, Age 22)Four Months LaterFour months pregnant, and I still couldn't believe it was real.Every morning, I woke up and touched my small bump, barely visible beneath the oversized shirts and marveled at the life growing inside me. Our baby. Our future. The tiny flutter of movement I'd felt last week had made me cry with joy in the bathroom, hand pressed to my stomach, whispering promises to someone who couldn't hear me yet.I'll love you enough for both of us. I promise.Because Jaxon still hadn't warmed to the idea, not really. He was... present, I supposed. He asked about my doctor's appointments in that clinical way of his, made sure I took my vitamins, had his assistant schedule my check-ups at the best maternal-fetal medicine practice in the city. But he never asked how I felt. Never put his hand on my stomach to feel our baby move. Never smiled when I talked about nursery colors or baby names.Still, I told myself it was p

The Blame

POV: JAXON (Flashback - Six Years Earlier, Age 28)The call came at 4 AM.Not from Isla, I'd ignored those calls, all seven of them, because I'd been in the middle of something important. A meeting that has been an escape from the suffocating weight of a marriage I never wanted.But the call that woke me wasn't from my wife. It was from New York Presbyterian Hospital."Mr. Romano? This is regarding your wife, Isla Romano. She's been admitted"The rest was static in my ears as I left my office for the hospitalSeeing Isla in that hospital bed should have broken something in me.She looked small. Fragile. Her face was blotchy from crying, her eyes swollen and red. When she reached for me, sobbing about the baby, about being sorry, about failingI felt nothing.No. That was another lie.I felt anger.White-hot, consuming anger that she'd lost the one thing that gave our marriage purpose. The heir. The Romano legacy. The entire reason I'd shackled myself to this weak, pathetic girl in the

The Distance

POV: ISLA (Flash back)Six months after I lost our baby, I finally admitted the truth to myself: my husband hated me.Not the passionate kind of hate that burns hot and fast. The cold kind. The indifferent kind.The kind that looks right through you like you're made of glass, invisible and easily shattered.He'd always been distant, but after the miscarriage, he became a ghost. Present in body but absent in every way that mattered. He slept in his office. Spoke to me only when necessary, in clipped sentences that held no warmth. He came home late, if he came home at all.And I'd become pathetic.I knew it. Damn, I knew it. But I couldn't seem to stop myself from trying.Every evening, I cooked his favorite meals and set them out on the dining table with candles and fresh flowers. I'd wait for hours, the food growing cold, the candles burning down to stubs.Sometimes he'd come home near midnight and reheat the meal in the microwave, eating alone in his office with the door closed. Some

The Mistresses

POV: ISLA (Flash back)I found the hair on a Thursday.Long, blonde, clinging to the shoulder of his jacket.I held it up to the light streaming through our bedroom window, watching it shimmer.My hair was brown. Dull brown, nothing special. This hair looked like spun gold.Something inside me cracked.I should have thrown it away. Should have pretended I never saw it. But instead, I kept it, tucked it into my pocket like evidence I might need later.Evidence of what, I didn't know. We both already knew the truth.The hushed phone calls, he'd be in the living room and his phone would ring, and he'd look at the screen and his whole face would change. Soften.Then he'd get up and walk into his office, closing the door behind him.I'd press my ear to the wood, hating myself, and hear his voice go gentle in a way it never was with me anymore."I can't talk right now," he'd murmur. "Later. I promise."Who was she? What did she look like? Was she everything I wasn't?He'd locked me out of e

The Gala

POV: JAXON (Flashback)The charity gala was the kind of event I usually hated.Too many people. Too much small talk. Too many investors and board members wanting a piece of my time, my attention, my success. But Apex Technologies was thriving, thanks to code I hadn't written and appearances mattered. My father had drilled that into me since childhood. Show up. Be seen. Play the game.So I showed up.Alone.I hadn't told Isla about the gala. Why would I? She'd just be uncomfortable, awkward, clinging to my arm like she was drowning. She'd wear something plain and spend the whole night looking at me with those sad, hopeful eyes. Eyes that made me feel trapped and guilty and angry all at once.Better to leave her at home.The ballroom was impressive. Crystal chandeliers. A string quartet playing something classical. Waiters gliding through the crowd with champagne and expensive hors d'oeuvres.I grabbed a drink and prepared for an evening of boring conversation and fake smiles.Then I sa

The Affair Begins

POV: ISLA (Flashback)Fourteen months into our marriage, I noticed something had changed in Jaxon.He was different. Not warmer, he'd never be warm with me. But he had this energy about him now. This lightness. He smiled at his phone. Hummed in the shower. Left the penthouse in the mornings with something that almost looked like happiness on his face.At first, I let myself hope it was because of me. Maybe he was finally adjusting to our marriage. Maybe the grief over the miscarriage had passed and he was ready to try again. Maybe, somehow, things were getting better.I was an idiot.The real signs were there if I'd been willing to see them. The way he'd check his phone constantly, then hide the screen when I walked by. The secretive calls he'd take on the balcony with the door closed. The nights he didn't come home at all, texting vague excuses about work emergencies or late meetings.But the worst part? He was happier without me.That's what hurt most. Not the cheating, I'd suspecte

The Confrontation that Wasn't

POV: JAXON (Flashback)Two months with Vivian, and I'd never felt more alive.It was reckless. Dangerous. Wrong on every level. I was cheating on my wife with her sister, sneaking around like a teenager, spending thousands on hotel rooms and gifts and keeping this secret.And I didn't care.For the first time since my father forced me into this marriage, I was doing something I actually wanted. Not because it was smart or strategic or good for business. Because it felt good. Because Vivian made me feel like a man instead of a machine.We met three, sometimes four times a week. Different hotels to avoid suspicion. Her apartment when I could get away for longer. Once, memorably, in my office at Apex after everyone had gone home. That had been Vivian's idea, she got a thrill out of the risk, the possibility of getting caught.I should have felt guilty. Should have thought about Isla at home, waiting for me, trying so hard to be enough.But I didn't think about her at all when I was with

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