บททั้งหมดของ His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: บทที่ 231 - บทที่ 240

[POV: Yessica] (Location: Edinburgh)Lewis read Sienna's messages twice and called Eleanor.Yessica listened from across the kitchen while Ethan finished his homework, hearing half a conversation — Lewis's voice dropping lower, Eleanor's responses audible as tone rather than words.When he hung up, she looked at him.He shook his head slightly. Not now. Later.She understood. She gave Ethan her full attention for another twenty minutes until his worksheet was done and Rose came in from the garden with leaves stuck to both knees, declaring she was hungry with the urgent certainty of someone who'd been hungry for several minutes and considered this a personal injustice.Both children were in bed by eight.Lewis was at the kitchen table when she came downstairs. His notes from the day — the board briefings, Marcus's operational summary, Eleanor's texts — were in a loose stack beside his phone."Tell me," she said."Catherine's solicitor notified the Crown's office at four this afternoo

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Harrison read the letter aloud over the phone.It was three paragraphs. Formal language, solicitor's phrasing, but the substance was unmistakably Catherine's — precise, personal, designed to find the gap in whatever armor the recipient was wearing.She wasn't asking for his forgiveness. She was asking him to submit a character statement to the parole board. A voluntary, independent statement from her former husband attesting to her capacity for change and her low risk of reoffending.She'd framed it as something he owed her. Forty years of marriage. The life they'd built together. Whatever she'd done, she was still a person who deserved to be seen as more than the worst of her decisions.Lewis listened to all of it without interrupting."How did it make you feel?" he asked when Harrison finished.A pause. "Tired," Harrison said. "Forty years and she still knows exactly which words to use." Another pause. "That's not persuasion. It's erosion. She's

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Yessica was still on the phone when Lewis came back into the kitchen.He read her face before she said a word — the stillness she got when something required her to process before she reacted, the specific quality of composure she deployed when the thing in front of her was not yet categorized.She ended the call and looked at him."That was a Dr. Petrie," she said. "Psychiatrist at the Glasgow facility. Victoria Brennan has completed her assessment." A pause. "She's requesting a supervised meeting. With me. Without you."Lewis was quiet for three full seconds."No," he said."I haven't decided yet.""I'm telling you my position. I'm not making the decision for you." He pulled out a chair and sat down. "Tell me everything Dr. Petrie said."Yessica sat across from him. She laid it out methodically — the discharge planning process, the supervised meeting framework, the clinical rationale Dr. Petrie had offered. Victoria had requested Yessica specific

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)The school counsellor's name was Mrs. Gallagher. She met them in the corridor outside her office at half past nine, the drawing already in her hand, and she led them inside before saying anything beyond good morning.The room was small and deliberately neutral — two low chairs, a plant, a box of tissues on the table. She sat across from them and placed the drawing face-up between them without preamble.Lewis looked at it.A self-portrait series, Claire's art teacher had called it. Five images. The first four showed Claire herself, at different scales, in what appeared to be the school playground. Normal detail work. The fifth was different in composition — Claire smaller, in the foreground, and behind the fence a tall figure standing still, facing inward.Claire had drawn the figure in careful detail. Dark coat. Still posture. And below the figure, in Claire's precise, careful nine-year-old handwriting: Victoria."She submitted the project yesterda

[POV: Lewis] (Location: Edinburgh)Logan's voice was still in Lewis's ear when he stood up from the table."Patricia Lorne," Lewis said. "Thirty seconds ago.""The call lasted forty-seven seconds," Logan said. "I couldn't intercept the content, but the number is active and geolocated. Patricia Lorne is currently in Edinburgh.""Where?""Southside. Within four miles of your house."Lewis looked at Eleanor across the table. She had already closed the letters and put them in her bag. She'd heard enough."James," Lewis said into the phone. "I need him at the house now. Not in an hour. Now.""I'm already calling him," Logan said. "He'll be there in eight minutes." A pause. "Lewis, your children are inside with Moira?""Yes.""Then they're fine for eight minutes. James will be at the door before I'm off this call with you." Another pause. "But Patricia Lorne being in Edinburgh tonight is not coincidence. She received a call from Victoria at the exact moment you were sitting with Margaret