Lahat ng Kabanata ng She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Kabanata 301 - Kabanata 310

(Natasha)"Whatever works for you," Chase says, for the third time in ten minutes, and I want to throw a mug at him."It's a calendar question. Not a referendum.""I'm answering the calendar question.""You’re not answering the calendar question. You’re giving me a carefully calibrated response. Telling me to do whatever I want without using those words.”He sighs and raises his hands in a what-do-you-want-me-to-do gesture.We’re trying to work out a travel plan that we can build our work schedules around once I start at Doheny.Of course he has free use of Warren’s company jet, but we agreed that would be environmentally irresponsible.We’d use public airlines and not contribute too heavily to the destruction of the planet.That comes with its own set of problems though, because we’re limited to the flight times scheduled by the airlines.“You hate the red-eye option. You once complained for a solid hour about flights that let you arrive in the morning but leave you exhausted and vir

(Chase)"I found four weekends that could work," I say, turning my phone so she can see the calendar.Two of them will cost me a board call I’ll have to push to a Monday at eight PM, and a dinner with my mother I'm going to hear about for a month.Worth it, if she picks one.Natasha's got Lily on her hip, keys already in her free hand like she was halfway out the door before I started talking."For what?""Exploring San Francisco before you move there. You, me and Lily. See what the city has to offer. Where the best restaurants and parks are. Maybe go to the beach."She glances at my phone and her face falls."Those are exactly the weekends I can't. Two fall over meetings I have with Stein clients who will need to be introduced to the new CFO. And Doheny's got me flying up there twice before I officially start."“Why?”"Onboarding. Giving me a tour of the building. Introducing me to people whose names I'll forget by Tuesday. I’m so sorry, Chase.""That's fine."It isn't fine.It's the

(Natasha)"I made a calendar," I say, sliding my tablet across the coffee table."Just a preliminary draft. A starting point."Chase looks at it the way he'd look at a contract he already suspects is bad."Lily's asleep," I add, lower. "Let's keep it down."He picks up the tablet. Scrolls once. Twice."Twelve days a month," he says, eyebrows headed for the ceiling."That's the starting point. We can adjust.""Twelve.""Chase.""I'm just repeating the number back so I'm sure I read it right."He sets the tablet down carefully, the same careful he's been doing for two weeks now."Twelve days. Out of thirty. And that includes the one weekend a month you’ll be here and the one I’ll be able to visit you.""It's just a first draft.""You said that.""I'm saying it again because you're using a tone like I handed you an eviction notice."He laughs, short and wrong. Not his real one."I’ve been supportive for two weeks. I’ve smiled at every dinner where you've mentioned square footage in a cit

(Natasha)My mother cajoles him into the shower somehow.I don't ask how.I just hear the water start and watch her as she starts stripping the bed while he's under it.Snapping clean sheets into place with the kind of efficiency that makes me wonder how many beds she's made in her life.She smooths the pillowcase flat with both hands, twice, even though nobody's going to notice a wrinkle in it tonight.It's the only part of this whole thing she seems to know how to do without hesitating.He comes out in a T-shirt and sweatpants, feet bare, hair still wet, looking about twelve years old.I have never seen Julian dressed this casually and it feels more shocking than seeing him naked would be."I'm going to sleep," he announces, like we might argue."Good.""I'll call tomorrow. Actually call. Not just leave you on read for four days.""You'd better."He gets into the bed my mother just made and pulls the blanket up, and for a second he looks so much like a kid that my throat tightens an

(Chase)"Your client's indemnity cap is a joke," Natasha says, "And you know it's a joke, because you wrote it."Eleven people around my boardroom table and she says it to my face like we're alone."The cap is standard.""It was standard in 2019. Is this Back to the Future?"Someone on my side of the table coughs into his fist.My own general counsel is fighting a smile.Traitor."Fine," I say. "Send us revised language.""Already did. Forty minutes ago. Check your inbox."She did. It's sitting right there, timestamped before the meeting even started.She came in here already having won and let me argue anyway.She used to do this during every meeting back when she hated me.Opposite sides of a table, her taking my positions apart bolt by bolt while I pretended it didn't do things to me.It still does things to me.That's the problem."We'll take an hour," Mason's deputy says, and the room starts packing up.Natasha doesn't pack up.She sits there, pen flat on her legal pad, and waits