Semua Bab The Wife He Forgot: Ashes to Empire: Bab 21 - Bab 30

POV: JAXON (Flashback)I called my lawyers the same day."I need divorce papers drawn up immediately," I told Phil Edwards, the best divorce attorney in New York. "Standard terms. She gets a settlement. I keep everything else.""Everything?" Phil asked. "Mr. Romano, in New York state, marital assets are typically…""Everything," I repeated. "The penthouse. The company. All assets. She signs away any claim to Apex Technologies specifically. That's non-negotiable.""That's going to require her signature on some additional documents. If she fights this…""She won't fight it.""How can you be sure?"Because Isla never fought for anything. She just accepted whatever crumbs she was given and said thank you."Just draw up the papers," I said. "I want them ready by end of week.""Understood. And the settlement amount?"I thought about it. I wasn't cruel. Despite what Isla probably thought, I wasn't trying to leave her destitute."One million dollars. And the downtown condo I bought as an inve

POV: ISLA (Flashback)I had two hours.Jaxon had texted me while I was at the clinic. A cold, impersonal message that might as well have been sent by his assistant:Business dinner with investors. Back around 11. Be gone by end of week.It was 8:47 PM.Two hours to pack my life into a suitcase and disappear.Two hours before the father of my unborn children came home and I lost my chance to escape.I stood in the middle of my guest bedroom and tried to think. Tried to plan. But my mind kept circling back to the same thought:I'm pregnant with twins.Jaxon's twins.The heirs he wanted. The children he'd divorced me for not giving him. Growing inside me right now while he sat at some expensive restaurant with Vivian, celebrating his new life.He could never know.He'd take my babies and leave me with nothing.So I had to leave first.I pulled my old suitcase from the closet. The same one I'd brought when I moved into this penthouse as a new bride, full of hope and stupid dreams.Now I w

POV: JAXON (Flashback)Six months into my marriage with Vivian, I started to realize I'd made a mistake.Not that I'd admit it. Not to my father. Not to anyone. But the truth sat heavy in my chest like a stone I couldn't swallow.Vivian wasn't who I thought she was.Or maybe she was exactly who she was, and I'd just been too blinded by lust and the promise of freedom to see it.The woman who'd seduced me at that gala, confident, exciting, passionate had disappeared the moment the wedding ring went on her finger. What remained was someone I barely recognized.And didn't particularly like."Jaxon, the black card isn't working," Vivian said, walking into my office without knocking. She was seven months pregnant now, her belly round and prominent. She used it as an excuse for everything.I looked up from my computer. "What do you mean it's not working?""I tried to buy a nursery set at that boutique on Fifth Avenue and the card declined. It was humiliating."I pulled up my bank account on

POV: JAXON (Flashback)Three years later, my entire world was falling apart.Ashley was three years old now. A small, quiet child who barely knew me. She called Maria "Mama" more often than she called Vivian that. When I came home, which was rare, she'd look at me with these wide, uncertain eyes like I was a stranger.I was a stranger. To her. To Vivian. To myself.My marriage to Vivian had become a cold war. We lived in the same penthouse but occupied different worlds. She had her bedroom. I had mine. We barely spoke except to argue about money, she was still spending recklessly, draining accounts faster than I could fill them."I need another hundred thousand," she'd say casually over breakfast."For what?""Does it matter? You have it. I want it."We'd stopped pretending this was a love match. We were just two people trapped in a marriage neither of us wanted to break. She stayed for the money and status. I stayed because divorce would be expensive and complicated and I didn't have

POV: ISLA (Flashback)Rowan and Nova turned one year old on a rainy Tuesday in October.I made them a small cake with my limited baking skills. Mia came over with balloons and presents. We sang "Happy Birthday" and watched them smash cake into their faces with their tiny hands.They laughed. Pure, joyful laughter.And for a moment, I let myself just be happy. Just be a mom celebrating her babies' first birthday.Then Rowan looked at me with those curious dark eyes and said, "Dada?"My heart stopped."No, baby," I said softly. "No dada. Just Mama.""And Auntie Mia," Mia added quickly, tickling Nova. "We're your family. That's all you need."But Rowan kept looking at me with that question in his eyes. And I knew it wouldn't be the last time he asked.By the time the twins were one, I'd established a reputation in the underground tech world.I was "Phantom", the mysterious coder who could fix anything. Break into any system. Solve any problem.My rates had gone from fifty dollars an hour