Lahat ng Kabanata ng SECRETS OF A BILLIONAIRE HUSBAND: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Rivera sat with her stack of pancakes growing cold in front of her, the syrup untouched, the butter melting into a thin shine.Rivera tried to follow the conversation with her colleagues, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the same place. Reagan, his silence that morning, and how she would face him later today.She reached for her water just to have something to do with her hands.“Rivera,” Daniel said, snapping his fingers lightly in front of her face, “you’ve been agreeing with everything for the past five minutes.”She blinked. “I have not.”“You just agreed that I should quit,” he said.Chloe laughed. “To be fair, you should.”Rivera forced a small smile. Before she could say anything else, the atmosphere shifted. It was subtle, conversations lowering, laughter thinning, and heads turning almost in unison.Rivera felt it before she saw him. It was Reagan. She didn’t turn immediately. She told herself she wouldn’t. 'What is he doing here? This isn't the kind of food he eats.'S

Rivera did not take back the request after he refused it. She had known he would say no before the words even left her mouth. Reagan Royce did not attend casual office dinners. He did not sit in noisy rooms where people laughed too loudly and spoke without structure.Still, she had asked, not because she believed he would agree, but because she wanted him to hear the idea. She wanted him to imagine, even for a second, what it might be like to sit across from Daniel while he told his ridiculous stories, to listen to Chloe argue passionately about things that did not matter, to watch Tessa smile quietly at the edge of the table. She wanted him to see people as people, not as roles.If he really allowed himself the liberty to be a free Reagan Royce for just one evening, perhaps he would begin to see life from a different perspective, be more human, and learn to be sensitive to her requests.He was too uptight. He said no too easily and seemed to believe everyone had hidden motives. River

Rivera let out a breath she did not know she was holding. Her face lit up in genuine relief. She presses a hand briefly to her chest, laughing to hide the quick jump of her pulse.“You really need to stop sneaking up on me. I’m beginning to think it’s a habit,” she said.“I walked in a straight line toward you,” he replied mildly. “You were just very focused on your phone.” He gestures lightly toward the screen still glowing in her hand.“I wasn’t reading anything,” she said quickly, then paused and laughed at herself. “I don’t know why I’m explaining.”“Because you think I am observing you,” he said.“Aren’t you?”“A little,” he admitted. “You look so bored, even though you're surrounded by people and fun."She looked around at the flashing lights, at Lina still wrapped around Marcel in the distance, at the strangers moving like waves around them. “That obvious?”“Only if someone is paying attention.”And you are?”“I am curious,” he said simply. “You do not behave like the usual peo

Reagan arrived without announcement. One moment the table was loud with overlapping cheerful conversations, and the next moment, everyone was gazing at him, surprised that he showed up. People adjusted their posture quickly like they were back at work.He wore a dark suit without a tie, the top button of his shirt undone, which somehow made him look only a little less formal.Daniel was the first to recover. “Sir,” he said, half rising from his seat, his voice suddenly formal in a way it had not been all evening. "We didn't expect you.""That much is obvious," he replied then he lifted a hand slightly to stop the movement. “Sit,” he said. “Please. Don't let me interrupt.”His eyes moved from Daniel to Tessa, to Chloe, to Marco, and then to Rivera. Then he stepped closer. “I hope I am not intruding,” he said.“No, not at all,” Tessa replied, though her hand had gone still around her fork."How long do you think he has been standing there?" Chloe whispered aside to Rivera."Let's hope i

By the time Rivera stepped out of the taxi and walked toward the front entrance of the mansion, the night had grown quiet.The welcoming dinner felt like something that had happened days ago instead of only a few hours earlier. The lights in the house glowed warmly through the tall windows, but the rest of the compound was calm, the gardens dark and still except for the faint hum of insects in the distance.Rivera paused briefly at the door. Her mind was not on the dinner. It was still on Clara. The woman’s voice, her mocking smile, the cold confidence in the way she had spoken about Reagan, all of it lingered unpleasantly in Rivera’s head.She had not expected the meeting to affect her as much as it had. She had told herself she did not care about Reagan’s past relationships, but hearing Clara speak as if she still had a claim on him felt more unpleasant than she would want to admit.She pushed the thought away and opened the door. The house was quiet inside too. Most of the staff ha