All Chapters of She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Chapter 241 - Chapter 250

(Mason)I've checked my phone forty times since the ceremony.I know, because I'm counting now, which tells me something about how I'm doing.Nothing from Chloe.Text me whatever it says, I told her this morning. Assuming she’d take it as soon as she got home.So far the universe, her word, not mine, is taking its sweet time.So I stand at the edge of the reception doing the thing I'm good at, which is looking fine.That's when I hear my own name in a stranger's mouth."…is that Mason? So you two are together?"One of Gloria's friends, talking to Natasha, looking right at me.And for exactly one second, one stupid, involuntary second, some animal part of me leans toward the word like it's heat in winter.Together.Sure.In some alternate life where Natasha hadn’t lost her heart to Chase before she even reached puberty.In this one it will never happen.Then Chase is there, making sure that little misunderstanding is cleared up post-haste."Chase Warren. Natasha's husband."And that's

(Clarice)The wedding was beautiful.I survived it with my emotions no further in tatters than they already were, which in my eyes is a massive win.I was invited.That's the part I keep turning over like a ruby in my pocket.Nathanial could have chosen to keep me away from this important moment in his life, but he didn’t.We’re far from reconciled, but it was an olive branch.I sat near the back, trying not to distract anyone from the big moment, and watched my son marry a woman who will be very good for him.He hugged me at the reception.Only once, and very briefly, but he used both arms, like he meant it.I've replayed this memory until it's worn smooth.A grown woman hoarding one hug like a girl with a love note.But I'll take it.I've learned to take what's offered and not ask for more than anyone is ready to give.Taking everything on offer is exactly what brought me to this place in my life.Natasha was there too.Maid of honor, luminous, lethal at the toasts.She didn't hug m

(Natasha)The house is too quiet with Lily at Chase's.That's the first mistake, letting it get quiet.Quiet is when the thing I've been not-looking-at since Mason's announcement finally sits down across from me and waits to be acknowledged.I've been very busy not looking at it.I'm good at not looking at things.I've built most of a personality out of it.But the house is quiet, and there’s an already-open bottle of good red wine, and apparently tonight's the night.So. Here it is.Somewhere along the way, without ever deciding to, I built my whole life on the quiet assumption that Mason would always be exactly where I left him.Available, on the other end of the phone, three rings tops, the one fixed point I never had to think about because he was always, always there.Through Chase and the marriage and the coma and every disaster I walked into face-first, Mason was in the corner of the frame, supporting me.And not once did I stop to wonder what it cost him to keep standing there.

(Mason)There's a screen, a wand, and a sound I wasn't ready for.The tech runs the thing over Chloe's stomach and the room fills with a fast, galloping noise, and she says, "There's your baby’s heartbeat."Chloe grabs my hand.I’m really glad she does, because I need something to hang on to as well.I've heard a lot of sounds that were supposed to matter. None of them did what this does.Chloe's crying.The messy kind, her whole face scrunched up and blotchy.I reach for a tissue without letting go of her hand.She sniffles gratefully.I don't cry, but something in my chest pulls tight and hot and I have to study the ceiling tiles for a bit.Listening to that sound makes it so vividly real.It stops being an idea.Until now it's been a phrase, I’m going to be a father.It was a positive test and a declaration I made on the phone in the middle of the night because it was the right thing to say.Now it's a heartbeat with an actual rate, and I'm going to be a dad for real, ready or not.

(Julian)My wife has decided Natasha is her favorite of my people.Which is inconvenient, Natasha being the woman I... well. We don't need to relitigate that.But Taylor likes her, and Taylor likes very few things she can't set on fire.So when she announced we were having lunch with Natasha, I put on a good suit and accepted it.She orders the second-most-expensive bottle of wine on the list.She makes a point of not ordering the most expensive."The most expensive one is a tourist trap," she tells the sommelier, who is nodding along and looking enchanted.My wife is a very dangerous woman."A man who orders the top bottle is admitting he doesn’t know anything about wine and can only read the price."I know how this ends, by the way.She told me at a blackjack table before I knew her middle name.Cancer. No chemo. A clock she's decided not to wind.I married her anyway. Or because of it. I've stopped trying to separate the two.What I've decided is simple.I don't pay any attention t