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Lahat ng Kabanata ng She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Kabanata 311 - Kabanata 320

418 Kabanata

Chapter 311 Small World

(Hannah)The valve replacement runs forty minutes over because the man's arteries have opinions, and by the time I scrub out it's past two and I've eaten one granola bar since five a.m.Standard Tuesday.What's not standard is that I keep thinking about Chase Warren while elbow-deep in someone's chest cavity.Not like that.Like a puzzle.The man drank wine in my kitchen last night and talked about making compromises for the woman he loves.Made promises about our son and meant them.Twenty-year-old Chase would've handed the whole conversation to an assistant and gotten out of there so fast the breeze would have ruffled my hair.People don't change, is what I've believed my whole life.They just get more like themselves with each passing year.Apparently I've been wrong.With the right incentive people can change.Natasha Kelly seems to be exceptionally good at inspiring transformations.And she's leaving.Which is going to land on my son heavily.I’m jealous as hell of the rapport sh

Chapter 312 Ridiculous

(Natasha)Dr. Hannah Myles has publications.Fourteen of them, indexed, peer-reviewed, and I know this because it's nine p.m. and I'm three pages deep into a medical database instead of sleeping.There's a conference photo.She's presenting something about valve repair, hair up, laser pointer in hand, looking like the kind of woman who saves lives before lunch and never once loses her keys.Lily's monitor hums on the nightstand as I close the laptop.This is ridiculous. I'm being ridiculous.Chase had a drink with the mother of his son.One drink, in her kitchen, fully clothed, about custody logistics and the impact of me moving.He told me about it himself, unprompted, the second Elijah went to bed."It was nice," he said. "First time we've talked like normal people."Nice.He said it was nice, and something in me pulled a fire alarm.Because here's what my brain served up at two a.m. that day and has been reheating since.I'm getting on a plane in five weeks.She's staying right her

Chapter 313 Girls' Night

(Chloe)Natasha Kelly is sitting across from me in a booth, holding the drinks menu like it's written in a language she refuses to learn."What is a nervine?" she asks."It calms your nervous system. That one has skullcap, oat straw, and blue lotus. It's basically a hug for your vagus nerve.""That sounds vaguely sexual. I'm going to stick to wine.""That's also valid. I’ll have the prenatal version with chamomile and rose water instead of skullcap and blue lotus. That's a no while I'm growing a person." "The baby kicks, hard, like she agrees.She's been doing barrel rolls since seven, which Bryce says means a Sagittarius moon and my OB says means nothing, and honestly I hold both truths.I still can't believe I'm here.Natasha called me.I've done a gratitude journal entry about it already and the drinks hadn't even started.Her wine and my mocktail arrives, purple and beautiful. She eyes it."It looks radioactive.""It's the butterfly pea flower that gives it color. Do you want to

Chapter 314 Terms

(Mason)"You ordered for me," Imani says, sitting down. "Bold. What if I hate oysters?""You don't. You expensed four dozen to the Brennan data room. Line item, page nine.""You read my expense reports?""I read everything from the deal that beat me. Know your enemy.""Enemy."She takes the champagne out of my hand mid-pour and finishes pouring it herself."You've sent me three term sheets and a fruit basket. Some enemy.""The fruit basket was a power move.""It had a pineapple wearing sunglasses, Mason.""Exactly. Confusing. You've thought about me every day since."She laughs. Not denying it.Whimsy is always a good bet. Chloe would have adored that pineapple.Dinner goes like the negotiation went during the Brennan deal.She's fast. I try to be faster, but she’s just letting me believe that for sport.She dismantles my Q3 strategy between courses, out of charity.She tells me my office is nearly a week behind on paperwork, and she figured it out from the other side of the negotiati

Chapter 315 Wrap

(Sonia)Somebody's making a speech about the movie, and Liam's across the room looking unfairly good in tight jeans and a charcoal button-up shirt.He’s not wearing his denim jacket for once.He hasn’t had a haircut in a while and it’s falling into his eyes and curling over his collar.There’s something magnetic about his quiet confidence.He’s currently laughing at a grip's joke, and I've officially spent the entire wrap party watching one writer instead of networking.Sonia who has her face on the side of a bus.The girl who got famous from being in a trailer.Currently invisible in a corner, nursing warm champagne, staring at a man's hands with a frightening amount of longing.He catches me looking.Doesn't smile. Just holds my gaze for three full seconds, then turns his attention back to the grip.That's the game we've been playing since the writers' room.Since the line-reading before my callback.Since he picked me up at the airport, if I'm being completely honest, and I'm tryin

Chapter 316 In Writing

(Natasha)"We need the relocation date in writing by month-end," the transition lead says. "Legal wants it locked before we announce."He's the third person from Doheny to call this week.They rotate, like a collections agency with better suits.I guess they’d stop if I actually gave them a straight answer."I understand.""So can we say the fifteenth?"My pen is hovering over the calendar. Right over the square. All I have to do is write a number in it."Let me review the exact wording first," I say. "I'll have my counsel look at it and get back to you Friday."A pause on his end. Long enough to mean something."Ms. Kelly, you've had the contract for two weeks.""Then it'll be a fast review. Friday."I hang up before he can answer, which I'd absolutely call unprofessional if someone else did it.Stalling.That's what I’m doing.I’ve been avoiding giving them a firm answer since first telling Chase.I'm not going to sit here and take it apart on a Tuesday afternoon.Some weeks you jus

Chapter 317 The Counter

(Chase)She doesn't buzz up.She comes up using the code I gave her for Lily emergencies, and when the elevator opens she's already talking."Eight suits in here on Saturday, sitting around your dining table."Her coat is still on."Elijah reports everything, you know that, right? He's thirteen, he's better than a listening device.""I know. I counted on it."I nod at the table."Sit down.""I don't want to sit down. I want to know what you're doing behind closed doors that can't happen in your own building.""It can't happen in my building because half my building would trade the information."I slide the folder across the table.Navy cover. No logo."You asked for my counter. That's it."She looks at the folder like it might have teeth.Then she opens it, and I watch her read the first page.Her CFO brain kicks in fast.She flips to the signature block, then the board resolution, then back. Checking if it's real.It's real."This is a succession plan.""Yes. It goes into effect in n

Chapter 318 Bluff

(Mason)Natasha's on my couch with a navy folder on her lap and a bourbon she hasn't touched."He briefed his board," she says."There's an interim CEO. There's a waitlist, Mason. My daughter is on a waitlist in a city I haven't moved to.""Devlin called me Friday to reschedule the meetings on the Stein accounts until after the transition."She stares at me."You knew.""I knew Warren Global was restructuring. I didn't know why until you called me from your car yelling.""I wasn't yelling.""My assistant asked if I needed security."She puts the bourbon down and rubs both eyes with the heels of her hands.She looks like she slept in twenty-minute installments."He’s giving up his company. Nobody does that. That's not romance, that's a controlled demolition.""Okay. It seems quite a lot like romance from where I’m sitting. Far more than I expected Chase to be capable of."Loosening my tie I buy a second.Because here's the thing about being someone's best friend for more than a decade.

Chapter 319 Breathe

(Chloe)"Partners, position yourselves behind your birthing person," Marisol says, and Mason moves like he's been given a military order.Twelve couples on yoga mats, fairy lights, a diffuser working overtime, and my baby's father sitting behind me in a two-hundred-dollar dress shirt at prenatal class.He came straight from a board meeting.He brought a notepad."Nobody else has a notepad," I whisper."Nobody else is going to remember the hip-squeeze technique either. They’ll be sorry they weren’t taking notes when the actual birth starts.""It's breathing, Mason. I've been doing it my whole life.""It's patterned breathing. There's a structure."Marisol claps twice."We'll start with the slow-paced breath. In for four, out for eight. Partners, breathe with them."I close my eyes.In for four.The baby stretches, one long roll, foot dragging across the inside of my ribs like she's checking the acoustics.Behind me, Mason is counting under his breath."Are you counting out loud?""I'm

Chapter 320 The Big Chair

(Natasha)"And this would be yours," the transition lead says, pushing open a glass door.The CEO office at Doheny Asset Management is a corner unit on the thirty-first floor.Two walls of window.The Bay on one side, the bridge on the other, fog rolling in like it's on the payroll and trying to seduce me into staying.The desk is empty.It’s been ready and waiting for me for weeks."Take a minute," he says. "I'll get the paperwork set up in the boardroom."The door shuts, leaving just me and the view.I walk the room.Run a hand along the desk.Sit in the chair, because that's what you do.You sit in the chair, you look at the bridge, you feel the click of a fifteen-year plan snapping into place.I wait for the click.I need the click to wipe away the realization I had when Mason gave me the third degree.Everyone’s scared of change.Moving’s hard.LA’s been my home most of my life.My friends and family are there.My… God, what is Chase even?Boyfriend is a very insignificant word f

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