All Chapters of She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

(Natasha)It's past midnight when my parents and brother have settled in for the night.I find Chase in the hallway, moving on reflex, the steady sway-and-step pattern etched so deep it no longer seems deliberate.Lily is deeply asleep against his shoulder and he’s staring at nothing in particular.He looks up when he hears me.Neither of us says anything for a moment.The house is quiet around us, the Christmas Eve chaos settled into warm stillness.I look at him and I look at our sleeping daughter and I read the situation with very little difficulty.He doesn't want to go back to the estate.I can't blame him.From the little he said about the dinner party, it seems to have been a Morton family production of considerable intensity.Whatever drove him to show up on my doorstep unannounced on Christmas Eve, it wasn't an abundance of festive spirit.I should send him home, but it’s late. And it’s Christmas."Come with me," I say quietly.I take him down the hall to the room at the end.

(Chase)The first thing I see when I open my eyes is the blue sky.A wide rectangle of pale Christmas morning light. Deep blue fading to grey at the edges, one star still visible near the upper corner of the skylight.I lie still for a moment and let the quiet settle around me.No estate. No staff moving through corridors. No uncomfortable dinner companions, or Sonia demanding I pay attention to her.Just the skylight, and the pale morning, and Lily making the small, searching sounds that mean she's waking up and hungry.I turn onto my side to look at her.She's on her back in the travel cot, hands raised on either side of her head in the involuntary surrender of deep sleep unwinding.Her eyes open, find my face, and she stares at me with the serious, assessing look she arrived in the world with and has never quite put down."Morning," I tell her.She considers this information gravely, before starting to grouse at the lack of milk.I sit up and reach for my phone.Thirteen missed cal

(Natasha)Two days.Sonia has been at the Warren estate for two days, and if Eleanor's mournful hovering is anything to go by, she intends to stay forever.I come downstairs on the morning of day three to find them in the sitting room together.Sonia is curled in the corner of the sofa with a blanket and a cup of chamomile tea, looking fragile and devastated.Eleanor sits beside her, rubbing slow circles on her back."She barely slept," Eleanor tells me quietly, as though I'm a nurse being briefed on a patient."I'm so sorry, Sonia," I say.And I mean it, because whatever my feelings are about this woman, losing a pregnancy is one of the most terrible things I can imagine.I spent enough time terrified of losing my own to know that.Sonia looks up at me with wet eyes and a trembling lip."Thank you, Natasha," she whispers.Eleanor looks at me with an expression that says, you see? She's being so brave.I go and get my own coffee, fiercely pressing down the irritation that’s trying to

(Natasha)It starts innocently enough.Coffee in the kitchen, early enough that the house is still quiet.Lily is still sleeping soundly in her cot, and Eleanor won’t be down for another hour.Sonia waits to be served coffee in bed. There’s no chance she’ll fetch her own.Chase pours two cups without asking.It’s something he’s started doing without either of us remarking on it, and sits across from me at the island."I want to talk to you about something," he says."Alright.""Warren Global needs a CFO."I look at him over the rim of my cup."I'm aware," I say carefully. "You've been operating without one for a year."We both know why."I want it to be you. Your old position, fully reinstated. Your terms, Natasha. Salary, title, whatever you need. You name it and I'll put it in writing today."He says it the way he says everything in a boardroom.Direct, confident, no wasted words.He’s always been very good at making an offer sound like the obvious conclusion to a problem rather tha

(Gloria)The coffee shop on Melrose is the kind of place I choose specifically because nobody I know would go there.Which is why, naturally, Piper Morton is sitting at the window table when I walk in.Is it actually possible that this is a coincidence, or is she here to run into me spontaneously?I’m not being melodramatic. With Piper this is a distinct possibility.Her eyes meet mine and that half-second where I have the option to pretend I didn’t see her passes me by.I’m too old for that particular cowardice anyway.I order my coffee and walk over."Piper.""Gloria."She gestures at the seat across from her with the precise economy of a woman who has decided to be civil and intends to see it through."Sit down, if you like."It’s a good thing I’m used to her ways, or I’d feel unwelcome.She looks good.Piper has the kind of bone structure that makes effort look optional, and she's always known it.Today she's in a dark coat, no jewelry, her black hair pulled back from her face.Sh