All Chapters of I AM BILLIONAIRE DAMON'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

110 Chapters

FIRM

I should come before your mother, maybe sometimes. I should come before Sophia. I should come before the baby and the family dinners and the pendant and all of it." My voice was rising and I let it. "When do I get to come first? When is it my turn to be the person everyone rushes toward? When does someone inconvenience themselves for me?""Eve, I inconvenience myself for you all the time...""Name one time in the past month."He opened his mouth.Closed it."Name one time in the past month that you put me ahead of something to do with Sophia. One time.""The gala, I took you and left early when my mother...""After she'd already humiliated me in front of everyone. That's not choosing me, that's damage control.""The business dinner where I told her she couldn't come...""And then she showed up anyway and you let her stay.""I was trying to keep the peace—""You're always trying to keep the peace. You know what keeping the peace costs? Me. It always costs me. My comfort, my dignity, m

MARCUS

Damon called Marcus the next morning.I know because I heard him on the phone in the kitchen while I was getting ready for work. His voice low, careful, the way it got when he was talking about something he hadn't fully processed yet. I couldn't hear the words but I could hear the tone and the tone said he was struggling.I left for work without saying much.We were still in that fragile place from the night before, still handling each other carefully like something that had been dropped and glued back together and wasn't quite dry yet.He texted me at noon.Damon: Having lunch with Marcus. You okay?Me: Fine.Damon: That's not an answer.Me: It's the only one I have right now.He didn't respond after that and I went back to my work and tried not to think about what they were saying to each other over whatever expensive lunch Marcus had inevitably chosen.I got home before Damon that evening. I made tea, sat on the couch, waited.He came in at seven looking like someone who'd been giv

THE FIRST CRACK

The call came on Wednesday afternoon while I was in a meeting.Jessica's name flashed on my screen twice before I excused myself and stepped into the hallway."The PI has something," she said.My heart did that thing where it speeds up before you even know why. "What kind of something?""Not enough to prove anything. But it's a crack." Papers rustled on her end. "Can you come by my desk when you're done? I don't want to talk about this over the phone.""Give me ten minutes."I went back into the conference room, wrapped up my part of the presentation on autopilot, and headed straight to Jessica's desk the second it was over.She was already pulling up files on her computer, angling the screen so only I could see."Okay so," she said quietly. "The PI sent over a preliminary report this morning. They've been tracking Sophia's movements in Italy, trying to verify her timeline.""And?""And she was definitely there. Rome, specifically. But here's the thing." Jessica pulled up a scanned re

CATHERINE'S JOY

Catherine Sterling didn't call ahead.She never did when she wanted to make a point, and showing up unannounced at ten on a Thursday morning was definitely about making a point.I heard her voice in the hallway before I heard the knock. That particular tone she used when she was speaking to building staff, polite but with an edge that said she expected doors to open for her without question.Then the knock. Three sharp taps on my door.I was working from home, had a conference call in twenty minutes, was standing in the kitchen in leggings and one of Damon's old Columbia t-shirts with my hair in a bun that hadn't seen a brush yet.Perfect.I opened the door and there she was. Catherine Sterling in full armor. Chanel suit, pearls, hair that had been professionally blown out sometime this morning, makeup that looked effortless but probably took forty minutes. She was holding a large shopping bag from some boutique I'd never heard of, the kind of place where they don't put prices on anyt

THE REPLACEMENT AGAIN

They were still in the living room when my call ended.I could hear them through the bedroom door. Catherine's voice, warm and animated in a way I'd never heard directed at me. Sophia laughing at something, that light musical sound she did so well. The clink of teacups because of course someone had made tea.I sat at the desk for a while after the call ended, just listening.Not eavesdropping exactly. Just not ready to go back out there yet.My phone was full of texts from Damon.Damon: What did my mother say about living arrangements?Damon: Eve, can you call me when you get a chance?Damon: I'm in back to back meetings but I'll try to get home early.Damon: Please don't let my mother steamroll you into anything.That last one almost made me laugh. Don't let her steamroll you. Like I had any control over Catherine Sterling when she decided she wanted something.I texted back: She wants Sophia to move to the estate. Says the stress here isn't good for the baby.The response came fast.

THE SHIFT

Damon held me for maybe thirty seconds before his phone rang.He pulled back to check it, and I saw his jaw tighten. "It's my mother.""Of course it is."He answered anyway. "Mom, now's not a good time."I couldn't hear what she said but I could hear the tone of it. That insistent pitch she used when she expected to be listened to."I understand that," Damon said. "But I just walked in the door and..."More talking from her end."Mom..."She was still going.He closed his eyes briefly. "Fine. Yes. I'll think about it. Can we talk about this later?"Apparently not because she kept talking."Okay," he said finally. "Okay. I hear you. I'll call you tonight."He hung up and stood there holding his phone like he was considering throwing it out the window."Let me guess," I said. "She thinks Sophia should move to the estate.""She thinks it would be better for everyone.""Better for everyone or better for Sophia?""She phrased it as better for the baby." He sat down on the couch, still in h

THE SEX STOPS

We'd been doing okay. Not great, but okay. The tension from the estate conversation had settled into something we could work around. Damon had agreed to wait on moving Sophia anywhere until the PI had more concrete information. I'd agreed to try to be civil during the increasingly awkward shared breakfasts.We were managing.And part of managing had been the physical intimacy. The way we came together at night like we were trying to prove something to ourselves, to each other, to the universe. That no matter what was happening during the day, we still had this. We still wanted each other. We were still us.That Tuesday we'd had dinner alone for once. Sophia was at some prenatal yoga class Catherine had insisted on paying for. The apartment was quiet, ours again for a few hours.We'd opened wine. Well, I'd opened wine. Damon had one glass and spent most of dinner just watching me, that look in his eyes I recognized.After dinner he pulled me onto the couch, kissed me in that way that s

SEPARATE BEDS

He came back to the bedroom the next night. Didn't say anything about the fight, about sleeping in his office, about any of it. Just got ready for bed like normal, set his alarm like normal, got under the covers like normal. Except nothing was normal. He stayed on his side. I stayed on mine. There was maybe two feet of mattress between us but it felt like miles. I lay there staring at the ceiling, hyperaware of every breath he took, every small movement, the careful way he was holding himself apart from me like I was something he might accidentally touch if he wasn't vigilant. The silence was heavy. It pressed down on my chest until breathing felt like work. "Goodnight," he said finally, his voice quiet in the dark. "Goodnight." He didn't reach for me. I didn't reach for him. We just lay there, two people in the same bed who might as well have been in different zip codes. I thought about all the nights before Sophia came back. The way we used to sleep tangle

THE BUSINESS DINNER

The quarterly Sterling Enterprises board dinner was in three days and I'd been pretending it wasn't happening.Not well. But pretending.Damon brought it up over breakfast on Monday. Sophia was still in her room so it was just us at the table, a rare moment of privacy that felt almost foreign now."The board dinner's Thursday," he said, cutting into his eggs with more precision than necessary. "I need to make sure we're on the same page about everything.""Okay.""It's important. All the major shareholders will be there, some potential investors my father's been courting. We need to present a unified front."I looked at him over my coffee. "Define unified front.""You know what I mean.""I really don't."He set his fork down. "I mean we need to look like a couple. A strong couple. No tension, no drama, nothing that makes the investors nervous about stability in leadership.""Right. Because investors care so much about your marriage.""They care about perception. About whether I'm dist

ANNOUNCEMENT, REALLY??

I looked at Damon. "Your mother wants to announce Sophia's pregnancy at your board dinner.""She mentioned it might come up naturally in conversation...""There is nothing natural about announcing your son's potential illegitimate child at a business dinner while his wife sits there smiling.""It's not illegitimate if it's mine...""You're not divorced. You're married. To me. Which makes any child with another woman definitionally illegitimate."Sophia flinched. "That's a harsh way to put it.""It's the correct way to put it.""Eve," Damon said, his voice getting that edge. "Can we not do this right now?""When should we do it? After your mother's already made her announcement? After Sophia's already introduced herself to your entire board as the mother of your child? When exactly is the right time to discuss how completely insane this is?""It's not insane to acknowledge reality...""What reality? We don't have paternity results. We have a positive pregnancy test and a lot of stories

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