Startseite / Romance / His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns / Kapitel 251 – Kapitel 260

Alle Kapitel von His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: Kapitel 251 – Kapitel 260

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Chapter 251: Catherine Is Gone

The call came at four-thirty in the morning.Yessica heard Lewis on the phone from the bedroom, heard the specific quality of his silence afterward, and got up without being asked.She found him in the kitchen in the dark. She sat beside him without saying anything."She's gone," he said."I know," she said. Because she'd understood from the silence.***The funeral arrangements fell to Lewis by default. Catherine had spent decades alienating everyone who might have helped carry that weight, so it was Lewis who chose the casket, the flowers, the chapel, the times. He did it methodically and without visible emotion, which Yessica had learned to recognize as how he handled things that were too large to feel all at once.She helped him. She sat across the funeral director and gave opinions when asked and kept her own feelings about Catherine Sterling carefully managed, because today was not about those feelings. Today was about her husband.The service was small. Thirty people, perhaps f

Chapter 252: One Big Family

The dinosaur theme had been executed with full commitment.Green and yellow decorations, a banner in teeth-and-claws font, and a birthday cake shaped into a T-Rex mid-roar — the kind that required seven tutorial videos and strong feelings about fondant. Lewis stood in the doorway with Grace in the carrier against his chest and took it all in.Ethan was at the car before Lewis had finished parking."Daddy! You came!"He knew Lewis was coming. He'd been told. He'd called that morning to confirm. The knowledge did not reduce his enthusiasm by a single degree.Grace, seven months old and strapped to Lewis's chest, watched Ethan bounce around with the steady, evaluating attention that was becoming her signature. New category: very loud person. Filed.***Regina moved through a full house with genuine ease. David had taken charge of the children's activity schedule and was currently refereeing a balloon game with rules nobody had fully agreed on. Baby Ollie, eleven months old and newly mobi

Chapter 253: The Last Summer Before Everything Changed

The children were already running for the beach before anyone had pulled a single bag from the car.Lewis and David stood at the open boot with armloads of beach tents, sunscreen, and portable cribs, watching their four combined children disappear down the path toward the water."Every year," David said."Every year," Lewis agreed.Grace was strapped to Yessica's chest in the carrier, head turning slowly, cataloguing this new smell — salt air, something she had no category for yet. Ollie was on David's hip, pointing at things and naming them with absolute authority.***The first evening settled around them easily. Barbecue on the deck. Children's voices carrying up from the sand below, mixing with the sound of the waves. The babies in portable cribs, the sea air doing something remarkable to infant sleep schedules. Adults with wine and finally, genuinely lowered shoulders.Lewis sat on the deck railing with his glass and looked at the group of people in front of him.Four years ago,

Chapter 254: Regina Told Ethan the Truth

Lewis got the text from Regina at 7:48 in the morning.He needs you. He's asking for your house.He didn't call to ask what happened. He just texted back: Send him over. I'll be here.***Ethan arrived twenty minutes later. Regina drove him herself, and whatever had been said between them in the car had clearly been enough — because Ethan walked through the front door, dropped his bag, and sat on the kitchen floor against the cabinet with his knees pulled up to his chest.Not his usual spot. Not anywhere near it.Lewis crouched down. "Hey. You want to talk or just sit?""Sit first.""Okay."Lewis sat on the kitchen floor too. They stayed like that for a while, the breakfast sounds of the house moving around them — Claire upstairs getting ready for school, Rose arguing with her cereal bowl somewhere, Grace's radio playing down the hall.After about five minutes, Ethan said: "She told me.""Yeah," Lewis said. "I know."***Ethan told him what he'd heard. The money. Sienna. The evening t

Chapter 255: Ethan Had One Question About the Board Meeting

Lewis called Marcus back at 11:22 PM, standing in the kitchen with the lights low and the house quiet above him."Tell me what you found," he said.Marcus didn't waste time. "There's a board member — James Morton — who's been researching Ethan's conception circumstances. Specifically the Sienna connection. He's planning to raise it at Monday's meeting."Lewis said nothing."His position," Marcus continued, "is that Lewis Sterling's illegitimate son represents a reputational liability for the company. He's going to propose a public distancing clause. Something that formally states Ethan has no succession rights and no association with Sterling Industries.""He's ten years old.""I know.""He's my son.""I know that too." Marcus paused. "Lewis, Morton has three other board members aligned. This isn't going to be a quiet objection. He's coming in with documentation — the Sienna trial records, the original paternity filing, newspaper coverage. He wants to force a vote."Lewis put his hand

Chapter 256: Regina Told Ethan the Truth About the Money

Mum sat across from him. Dad-David was on his left.In the corner, Ollie stacked blocks without a care in the world.Ethan wished he was Ollie right now."Ethan, honey," Mum said. "Daddy Lewis told me you have questions about how you were born. I'm going to tell you the truth. It's a complicated story, but you're old enough to hear it."His heart was going too fast. "Okay."She took a breath. Then she said it."Eleven years ago, I met your daddy at a work event. We talked one night. That night, you were conceived. But I didn't tell him I was pregnant. I made the choice to keep you secret from him for three years."Ethan waited. "Why?"Mum's hands twisted together in her lap. "Because of a woman named Sienna. She paid me money to spend an evening with your daddy."The room tilted."Someone paid you," Ethan said. "To be with Daddy.""Yes."Mum didn't look away. "I took the money. I was young, I needed it, and I told myself it wasn't a big deal. But then I found out I was pregnant. With

Chapter 257: Ethan Read Regina's Letter Five Times

The letter arrived as a message first.Ethan — I found something when I was clearing out old boxes. A letter I wrote you the night I found out I was pregnant. I never sent it. I don't know if you want to read it. You don't have to. But it's yours if you do.He'd stared at it in the car on the way home with Mama Yessica and said nothing.That night he typed back: Send it.***It came through at 9:47 PM as an email attachment. Five pages, handwritten, scanned.Mum's handwriting, smaller and more careful than it was now. Eleven years old, the date at the top.He opened it. Read the first line.Then he closed it and put the phone face-down on his duvet.He wasn't ready. Not yet.***He was ready the next morning.He sat on the floor with his back against his bed, the phone in his lap, and read every word.She wrote about the night. About Sienna and the money. About finding out she was pregnant six weeks later and not sleeping for three days straight because she didn't know what to do.She

Chapter 258: Claire Broke Down in Class

The call from school came at 2:17 PM.Lewis was in a meeting. Yessica picked up.Mrs. Henderson, Claire's guidance counsellor, spoke in the measured tone of someone delivering news she'd delivered before. "Mrs. Sterling, I wanted to speak with both of you before the end of the day. Claire had a difficult incident in health class this morning. She's okay — but I think it would be helpful if you came in."They sat in Mrs. Henderson's office forty minutes later: Lewis in the chair to the left, Yessica to the right, the room smelling of coffee and something vaguely floral.Mrs. Henderson folded her hands. "The class was covering family structures and the impact of divorce on children. The teacher asked the students to reflect on how their own family backgrounds might affect their future relationships."Yessica felt Lewis go still beside her."Claire raised her hand and started asking questions about divorce rates and whether children of divorced parents were statistically more likely to r

Chapter 259: Rose Was Fine

The call from Mrs. Henderson came while Yessica was booking the family therapy intake appointment.She set down the phone and stared at the wall for a second. Then she picked it up and answered."Mrs. Sterling. Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to speak with you before end of day. It's about Rose."Lewis was in his study. Yessica walked down the hall and pushed open the door without knocking.He looked up. Read her face immediately. Put down his pen.***They sat across from Mrs. Henderson thirty minutes later, the same two chairs they'd occupied the week before for Claire."Rose has a pattern I've been tracking for several months," Mrs. Henderson said. "I didn't want to raise it prematurely, but after what happened with Claire this week, I think it's important context.""What kind of pattern?" Yessica asked."Rose is doing well academically. She's engaged in class, popular with her peers, and by every surface measure, she's thriving. But when the subject of family comes up — in

Chapter 260: Lewis Said It Was Just a Board Meeting

The email arrived at 6:43 AM, before Lewis had finished his first coffee.It was from Marcus. Subject line: Heads up — before you walk in today.Lewis read it standing at the kitchen counter.The board had talked. Informally, off-record. Not all of them — four, maybe five members. But those four had the institutional weight to shift a room if they decided to.The concern: Lewis was distracted. His attention was divided between Sterling Industries and his family. The company had performed well, but the opportunity cost of a CEO whose priorities had shifted was a conversation the board wanted to have.Not confrontationally. Just as a strategic discussion.Lewis set his coffee down. He replied to Marcus with two words: I see.Then he got the children to school, kissed Yessica at the front door, and drove to the office.***He had thirty minutes before the meeting. He used them to read the full board brief again, this time looking for what wasn't in it.The numbers were good. Revenue up e

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