All Chapters of She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

(Natasha)I make it to the office at seven twenty-three.Priya is not in yet.The lights on our floor come up automatically as I walk through, which is a small mercy, because if anyone had said good morning to me I might have started crying in reception.I sit at my desk.I don’t touch the laptop.I don’t look at my phone.I sit with my hands flat on the wood and I breathe through my nose and I count to thirty.The seven-thirty meeting is internal.Mason and the senior associates, walking through the latest rush motion from Bauer's people.I can do it.I’ve done more on less sleep, on worse mornings, in worse states.Somehow I can’t fully convince myself of that.I feel like I broke something. Some important part of who I am.There’s a black square in the middle of last night where a memory should be.Around the edges of the square there are pieces.A moment when he said get a room here and I agreed, because at the time it had sounded like the smartest thing anyone had said to me all

(Natasha)The flowers arrive at three-eighteen.I know the exact time because I'm watching the clock count down to a four o'clock call I'm dreading.Mason's response to the filing against me went out on the wire at noon.Stein M&A has been trending alongside Warren Global on three different financial channels since the news went public, and the press team has been fielding calls in the war room since the ink dried.Priya knocks before she comes in, which is unusual. She usually just appears.Like a young, very well put together fairy godmother, bearing coffee and neatly typed reports, offering to make my life easier.There’s a young man next to her, staggering under the weight of the arrangement he’s carrying.It’s not a bouquet. It’s large enough to deserve sentience.An artfully arranged riot of color.Beautiful and wholly impractical.Julian has to be behind it."This has arrived for you," she says, “I don’t really know where to tell him to put it.”I can see why. It would need its

(Mason)I get the alert about Bauer's press conference at twelve thirty-one.I’m at my desk. The salad I ordered an hour ago has gone soggy in its container and I have eaten exactly none of it.The Henderson filing is open on one screen.The Warren Global stock chart, currently doing something horrifying, is open on the other.My company isn’t listed on the stock exchange, but my reputation is irrevocably tied to Warren Global’s on this deal.If they tank, so do I.Nobody will ever trust us to act as their intermediaries again if this goes south.My phone is buzzing approximately every ninety seconds with calls I’m not answering.I tune in to watch Jeffrey Bauer, live, from the steps of his Century City building.I watch the whole nine minutes without moving.I don’t even blink.I watch him do the wounded face, and the deep regretful breath.I watch him mouth platitudes about how his lawyers acted without his permission.As if a bloody law firm ever does anything they’re not billing f

(Chase)Two in the morning is a stupid time to be reading anything.Two a.m. is the time when nothing on a screen is the size it actually is.The stakes inflate.The threats get teeth.A perfectly reasonable contract clause looks, at two a.m., like the end of your life's work.I should have known better than to open a message from Sonia at two a.m.I’ve read it four times. I’m about to read it again.Chase,I know I'm the last person you want to hear from.I'm not asking for anything.I've left the country and I wanted to say goodbye properly.And there’s something I think you should know.Nathanial has been obsessed with your wife for months.I don't say that lightly. Betraying my brother is a heavy burden to bear.But I have watched him with her, and I know my brother, and there is something between them you have not been told about.He has been in her office at all hours.They are far closer than you know.The genetic markers and resemblance he shares with Lily should concern you.

(Natasha)The hearing is set for nine.It does not start at nine.It does not start at nine fifteen, or nine thirty.By the time the bailiff opens the courtroom doors at nine forty-two, I’ve been standing in a corridor in shoes that hate me, holding a six-month-old who’s decided this is the morning to discover the concept of refusing to be still.Sarah's daughter has chickenpox, she’s at the pediatrician with her right now.Which is why she can’t be here to help me with Lily.Lily has tests later. The hospital is less than five minutes from the courthouse.The hearing is procedural and not supposed to take more than twenty minutes.Leaving her with my mother and driving back and forth seemed silly.So Lily is here on my hip in a pale pink romper, wriggling around like it’s an Olympic event.I’ve made worse decisions this month.It’s a less comforting thought than it ought to be.Chase is across the corridor with three lawyers and the worst expression I’ve ever seen on his face.It loo