All Chapters of The Billionaire's Ultimatum: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

LAURA Movie night was supposed to be simple.That was the whole point. After the week I'd had, simple was exactly what I needed—Auric asleep by eight, me and Jerry buried under a blanket with something mindless playing on the screen and enough snacks to feel genuinely irresponsible about. It was the perfect reset.I had the whole thing mapped out in my mind while I stood in front of the open fridge, scanning the shelves with the kind of focus I usually reserved for things that actually mattered. We had juice. Half a bag of chips that had definitely gone soft. Some leftover pasta from two nights ago that neither of us was going to touch.No popcorn.“Ugh…”I shut the fridge and grabbed my tote bag off the counter. Five minutes. The supermarket down the road was a five-minute walk and I'd be back before Jerry even got here.But when I turned toward the door and opened it, Jerry was already there.He was dressed. Properly dressed at that—collared shirt neatly, dark trousers that, and

LAURA “Honey,” was the first thing I muttered as I crossed the living room in three strides to where he was. I scooped Alec up into my arms, pulling him against my chest and pressing my lips to the top of his sleep-warm hair. I held him the way I had when he was a newborn and the world felt too big and too unpredictable—tight, close, like I could keep everything dangerous out just by holding on hard enough. I couldn’t help it. I knew what I was doing, and I knew how it must have looked—like I was shielding my son from a threat. And maybe that was exactly what this was. “Mama?” He said in a sleepy voice, his chin hooked over my shoulder. “You’re squeezing too tight.” I could feel Xavier’s eyes on my back. And something about that—the weight of his gaze while I held our son close, like he was something fragile, something I needed to protect—I knew it’d hit somewhere deep. I drew in a breath and slowly turned. Xavier hadn’t moved from where he’d been standing, but his expr

LAURA Xavier was waiting at the restaurant entrance exactly as he’d said he would be. He saw us coming and straightened, and the moment his eyes landed on Jerry, something shifted in his expression. It was barely perceptible but I’d spent enough time studying Xavier Blackwell’s face to catch it—something cold and assessing and deeply, quietly dangerous. Jerry saw it too. His chin lifted slightly and he held Xavier’s gaze without flinching, one hand warm on the small of my back. Neither of them said anything for a long, loaded moment. It was possibly the most uncomfortable five seconds of my life. “Xavier,” I said, purely to break the silence. “This is Jerry. Jerry, this is—” “I know who he is,” Jerry said, not looking away from Xavier. “And I can guess who you are,” Xavier replied with a smile on his face, his voice perfectly neutral. I looked between the two of them and thought, with a detached kind of exhaustion—this is my life now. The drive to my house was so tense, I w

LAURA We spent the day moving through Santorini like something halfway between a family and a question neither of us had answered yet. Xavier had rented a car—something low and quiet and expensive that Alec found enormously exciting. We drove along the coast with the windows down and Alec between us in his car seat, narrating everything he saw with the inexhaustible commentary of a child who has decided the world is endlessly interesting. Xavier listened to all of it. He asked Alec questions—real, actual questions. Not the sort adults made up when they wanted to end the conversation quickly. He wanted to know the names Alec had given to his toy dinosaurs. He wanted to understand the precise hierarchy of Alec's opinions on various ice cream flavors. He absorbed every piece of information Alec offered him with the focused attention of a man building a picture from scratch, learning his son from the very beginning and refusing to skip a single detail. I watched them from somewhere

XAVIER I woke up bright and early, I took a shower using all the bottle shampoos the hotel provided. I spritzed some cologne and unconsciously wore the best clothes I carried along with me. A long-sleeved shirt and black Jordan trousers. I checked myself in the mirror, making sure everything was in place. I started to ruffle my hair, then stopped myself halfway. Was I actually putting effort into my looks? Other than wearing any suit I saw fit to the office and occasionally visiting the hairdresser, I didn’t do much. So why did I suddenly care about my looks now? I sighed and brushed the thought off. I was ready an hour before I needed to be. The sun was already bright through the balcony doors, gold and unhurried, completely indifferent to the fact that I was leaving it today. Eight-fifteen. My phone buzzed. “We’re ready whenever. Alec has been asking about you since 6am. Just so you know.” I was already reaching for my jacket and was there within minutes. Laura’s fron