All Chapters of I married My Ex-Husband’s Father… Now He Calls Me Mom: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

Athena I left my phone on the vanity table. I realized it halfway through my meeting with Diane, my designer, when I reached into my bag to show her a reference image I had saved. The Whitmore family gala was three weeks away and there was still so much to finalize. It was the biggest event in the family’s social calendar, the kind of evening that got talked about in the city for months after. Crystal chandeliers, guest lists that read like a who’s who, everything polished to perfection. And as always, I was the one behind it. Not officially. There was no title, no credit, no acknowledgment at the dinner table. Just Athena, quietly making sure everything ran beautifully while the Whitmore name got the applause. Diane spread her sketches across the table and waited while I searched my bag a second time. “I have to run back home quickly,” I told her, reaching for my coat. “I left my phone. I won’t be long.” I stepped outside and called my driver. “Take me back to the es

AthenaI drove to Tracey’s on autopilot.I don’t remember making the decision. I just remember the roads and the traffic lights blurring through my windshield and then suddenly I was parked outside her building, hands still on the steering wheel, engine still running.I turned it off.She must have been watching from her window because she was at my car door before I could even reach for the handle. She pulled it open, took one look at my face and said absolutely nothing. Just stepped back and let me get out.That was the thing about Tracey. She always knew when to talk and when to just show up.I followed her upstairs.Her apartment was small and warm and smelled like the scented candles she was always burning. She sat me down on her couch, disappeared into the kitchen and came back with tea I didn’t ask for and a look on her face that told me she was holding herself together for my sake.“Tell me everything.” She sat across from me. “From the beginning.”So I did.I told h