Semua Bab His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: Bab 141 - Bab 150

POV: Yessica | EdinburghThe doorbell rang at nine-fifteen exactly.Yessica was in the kitchen. She heard it. She stayed where she was.Lewis answered. She heard Regina's voice first — clipped, informational, the tone of a woman conducting a handover not a conversation."His medication is in the front pocket. The EpiPen is labeled. He had porridge this morning but not much. He was nervous last night so he did not sleep well." A pause. "He has the rabbit. Do not let anyone else hold it.""Okay." Lewis's voice was careful. "Thank you for bringing him.""I am not doing it for you."Then the door closed.Then nothing for a moment.Then small feet on the hallway floor.Yessica turned from the counter. Ethan was standing in the kitchen doorway in a yellow jacket he had not taken off yet, the rabbit pressed flat against his chest, looking at the room with the specific alertness of a child cataloguing an unfamiliar place.Claire came up behind him from the hallway and crouched to his level. "

POV: Yessica | EdinburghThe text came at nine-fourteen, while Lewis was already at the office and the girls were with the nanny.Unknown number. Two lines."I would like to meet. Without Lewis and without lawyers. I think we need to talk. — Regina."Yessica read it twice. Set her phone face-down on the desk. Picked it up and read it again.She called Pippa."Don't go," Pippa said, before Yessica had finished explaining."I'm going.""Of course you are." A pause. "Tell me where so someone knows where your body is."The cafe was near Stockbridge, neutral enough that it did not belong to either of them. Regina was already there when Yessica arrived, hands around a coffee cup, no lawyer, no phone visible. She looked up when Yessica sat down. Did not smile."Thank you for coming," Regina said."You knew I would.""Yes." Regina set down her cup. "You are not the type to avoid a hard conversation. That is actually one of the things I wanted to discuss."Yessica ordered coffee from the passi

POV: Lewis | EdinburghEleanor had the recusal motion filed by eight-fifteen.Lewis was on the phone with her when Yessica came downstairs with coffee, and she sat across from him at the kitchen table and listened to his half of the conversation without pretending she wasn't."Walsh recuses today?" Lewis said."The motion is submitted. The court will acknowledge it within twenty-four hours. Walsh will be notified directly." Eleanor's voice was measured. "She will not be able to discuss your therapeutic file with anyone once she receives notice. That protection is immediate.""And my sessions?""Suspended pending the formal recusal confirmation. A week at most. After that you find someone new and document the transition." A pause. "I know the timing is terrible. It is meant to be terrible."Lewis looked at Yessica across the table."Eleanor," Yessica said, loud enough to carry. "How did Sienna know that Dr. Walsh was Lewis's therapist? It was not in any filing. It was not public.""Tha

POV: Yessica | EdinburghLewis asked her over dinner.The girls were eating. Rose had pasta in her hair. Claire was describing something that had happened at school in considerable detail. The house was loud and normal, and Lewis waited until both girls were done and in the bath before he sat back down at the kitchen table and looked at her."Before you came to Eleanor," he said. "You had a different lawyer. At the beginning. When the Rose petition first arrived."Yessica set her glass down. "Yes.""Who were they?"She looked at him. He was keeping his expression neutral, which was the expression he wore when the information mattered more than the explanation."Marsden & Cole," she said. "Someone recommended them. I did not know Edinburgh family law, so I asked around and that name came up." She paused. "I used them for about three weeks before I realized they were not the right fit. Then I found Eleanor."Lewis picked up his phone without a word and called Eleanor.She answered immed

POV: Lewis | EdinburghHe called Yessica from the hospital car park.She answered on the first ring. He could hear that she had not slept."Marcus," he said.A silence."Tell me," she said.He told her everything. Catherine's account. The fourteen months. The Tokyo morning. Marsden and Cole. The board.She was quiet through all of it. He had learned to read her silences — this one was not shock. It was processing."Nine days," she said, when he finished."Until the quarterly review.""He does not need a majority to do damage at a quarterly review. He needs three things. A resolution on the table, enough proxy votes to pass it, and you distracted enough that you cannot mount a counter-response in time." She paused. "What is the composition of your board?""Nine members. Three independent directors, two institutional investor representatives, Harrison, Marcus, me, and one outside appointment Catherine held.""Catherine's seat.""She has not been active since the Rose petition. The seat