All Chapters of She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Chapter 361 - Chapter 370

380 Chapters

Chapter 361 Open

(Natasha)"Say that again, slower, and pretend I'm not going to scream.""She took the other offer."Priya doesn't look up from the laptop."This morning. Very apologetic email. Lots of exclamation points for a woman breaking your heart.""We agreed on terms Thursday. She loved the pro bono arm. She said, quote, ‘this is the only job in the industry that doesn't make me feel dirty’ end quote.""And then somebody offered her triple to feel dirty at Doheny Capital."There it is."Triple?""Signing bonus too. She sent me a screenshot. I think she wanted absolution."Priya turns the laptop around."Look at the start date."Monday.They gave a senior analyst four days' notice and triple money to start immediately.Nobody hires that fast for a real job.They hired her so I couldn't."He said he doesn't lose gracefully," I say."Apparently he doesn't win gracefully either. He just spent seven figures a year to make my week longer.""Should I be insulted he hasn't made any attempt to poach me

Chapter 362 Conflict

(Chase)"Your company is trying to eat my first client."Natasha doesn't sit.She puts a folder on my desk, open to a page with one line highlighted.Warren Logistics Holdings."You made her an acquisition offer," she says. "Now you’re trying to rush her. I traced it up the chain last night. It's yours.""It's a subsidiary. Third tier. I've never sat in one of their deal meetings in my life.""I believe you. That's not the problem and you know it."I do know it."I'll recuse myself immediately. In writing, full wall, I won't so much as read a summary.""And I'm not dropping her. She signed with me because two big firms told her to take a bad deal. I won't be the third.""I'm not asking you to drop her.""I know. I'm saying it out loud so it's been said."She closes the folder."This was always going to happen eventually. I just thought we'd get more than four days.""For the record, I'd like it noted that neither of us did anything wrong.""Noted. Tell that to your board."The board h

Chapter 363 Thursday

(Elijah)"Your generation puts ice in everything. Ice is for injuries and scotch.""It's lemonade, it's supposed to have ice.""Supposed to. There's a word doing no work at all."Elias points his cane at my shelf in the pantry."Brenda restocked you. Apparently I pay her to spoil a teenager."Thursday, same as always.Except it isn't, and I noticed about ten minutes in.He took the kitchen stairs one at a time.Both feet on a step before the next one.He's never done that.The cane's a prop, everybody knows the cane's a prop.And just now he started an insult about my history teacher and lost it halfway through.Stopped.Blinked.Waved his hand and gave up on it.Grandfather Elias doesn't give up on insults. He finishes them and then adds a footnote."You okay?""I'm eighty-one. Okay retired years ago.""You look kind of gray.""That's called being old. It comes with the money."He lowers himself into the kitchen chair. Not sitting. Landing."Should I call Brenda?""You should get me

Chapter 364 Waiting Room

(Chase)"They took him through those doors forty minutes ago," Elijah says."Nobody's come out."He's in the plastic chair next to mine, still holding Elias's phone, because somebody handed it to him in the ambulance and nobody's dared take it back."Forty minutes is normal.""How do you know?"I don't."I Googled it," I lie."You didn't Google anything. You've been staring at that door the whole time."He's got me there.The last time I felt like this it turned out to be nothing.A panic attack.A false alarm brought on by my memories of my father and the stress of keeping things from Natasha.Best fake heart-attack ever though, it brought Elijah into my life.This one isn't a misreading.I watched them wheel my grandfather past me with a mask on his face.He’s eighty-one.And I don’t think he has nerves. If he does they’re made of titanium.Whatever this is, it isn’t a panic attack.Hannah comes through the staff door in scrubs, spots Elijah, and crosses the room fast."Hey. Hey. Lo

Chapter 365 Not My Patient

(Hannah)"You're reading his chart.""I'm standing near his chart."The cardiologist takes the tablet out of my hands anyway.She's kind about it, which is worse."Hannah. He's stable, the artery's open, his numbers look good for eighty-one. You know all of this because I told you an hour ago.""You did.""And you know I can't have you anywhere near his care.""I know. I'm not asking to be.""You're hovering.""I'm a cardiac surgeon whose son's great-grandfather had a cardiac event and is currently recuperating in the hospital where I work. Where exactly would you like me to hover?"She raises her eyebrows at me."The cafeteria. The chapel. Anywhere that’s not my patient."Fair.Thirteen years I've kept these two lives in separate buildings.Work here, Elijah at home, a wall in between with no door in it.When Chase came in I was worried about my secrets, but Elijah wasn’t present and nobody knew there was a link.The wall came down last night when they wheeled a Warren past the nurse

Chapter 366 Committee

(Natasha)"Who convened this?"Nobody answers me.Gloria's dining table has been cleared of lunch and covered in binders.Three binders.Eleanor has one, Clarice has one, and Gloria is standing over the third with the expression she gets before she takes over a task."Nobody convened anything," Eleanor says. "We're having coffee.""There are tabs. Your coffee has tabs.""Clarice brought the tabs," Eleanor says, and my mother inclines her head, graciously accepting responsibility.I look for my fiancé.Chase is at the far end of the room holding Lily and studying the ceiling."Coward," I tell him."I came in for a juice box. I was ambushed. I've been held for forty minutes.""You could've called for help.""They took my phone."Nathanial's phone is face up on the sideboard next to Chase's.Hendrik, from the sofa, doesn't look up from his book.He's the only person in this family who's ever survived by staying out of range, and he knows it.Eleanor opens her binder to a photograph of a

Chapter 367 Home Study

(Gloria)"Walk me through a normal Sunday.""I cook lunch for eleven."The caseworker looks up from her folder."Eleven?""Sometimes thirteen. It depends on who's feuding.""She's not exaggerating," Nathanial says."It's the whole family. Both families. All of them, every week, at this table.""And you always cook for everyone?""I like doing the cooking. I like being in control of the planning. I have charts with everyone’s allergies and dislikes and such."I’m suddenly not sure whether that makes me sound organized or like a control freak.She writes something down.She's been writing things down for forty minutes.She has a folder with our names on it, a pen that clicks, and the settled face of a woman who's sat at four hundred kitchen tables exactly like this one.I tried to impress her anyway.There's a lemon cake on the counter.Nobody's touched it.Nobody's going to."The house is lovely," she says."Thank you.""It's very clean.""It's always like this," Nathanial says.Straig

Chapter 368 Peonies

(Mason)"You're holding flowers.""I'm aware.""You live on my couch. You went out for diapers and came back with flowers.""And diapers. I'm not an amateur."I hold them out."Peonies. For you."Chloe doesn't take them.She stands in the kitchen doorway with a burp cloth over one arm and looks at the flowers, then at me."How did you know I like peonies?""You told me once they symbolize romance, prosperity and good fortune. And that they’re less uppity than roses."“Wow. You remember all that?”“Of course I do.”She takes them.Holds them against the burp cloth carefully, like they might spit up on her."I don't own a vase," she says."I know. I bought one. It's in the diaper bag."Her eyes go wet, instantly, no warning.She doesn't hide it.She never hides anything, which is one of about forty things I'm here to talk about.Maya's down for her nap.The monitor's on the counter, hissing.I put my phone next to it, face down, so it doesn't interrupt just when I hit my stride."You to

Chapter 369 Almost

(Chloe)"You've checked your phone four times since the bread arrived.""Three.""Four. I saw the one under the table."Mason turns his phone face up between us. One new text. Natasha.She's been asleep for an hour. I'm eating all your snacks. Stop checking in on us."She's fine," he says."She's fine."Neither of us puts our phone away.The restaurant has real candles and a waiter who scrapes the tablecloth between courses with a little silver tool.I'm in a dress with a zipper and a plunging neckline that’s being way more generously filled than the last time I wore it.Not so long ago I was in a hospital gown, and now I'm across a candle from Mason Stein, and my body doesn't know what to do with any of it, so it's doing everything.Warm face. Fast heart. Hands that keep scrunching up the napkin.That’s good.I want to feel all of it."You look beautiful," he says, staring at me like it’s the truest thing he’s ever said."Thank you. I had a bit of trouble getting the zipper up."He v

Chapter 370 Launch Night

(Natasha)"The tree stays.""The tree is seven feet tall, Priya.""It's a lobby tree. It establishes permanence. Clients see a tree that size and think, these people aren’t leaving anytime soon with a tree that big."She straightens one branch like she's fixing a groom's tie."Also I already bought it. Congratulations on your engagement."The office won't fit everyone, which is actually perfect.I’m not opening a nightclub, I have enough space for my professional needs.It’s only two rooms, a lobby, and my name on the door in small letters.They never needed to be big. They only needed to be mine.Despite the tight fit, everyone's in here anyway.There’s only one server carrying drinks and one with canapes, because the budget's real and everybody knows better than to mention the budget.Especially Chase.Elias has been installed in the good chair by the window with a glass of something that isn't alcoholic, and he’s being supervised in shifts.Currently it's Hendrik's turn, which mean

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