บททั้งหมดของ His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: บทที่ 271 - บทที่ 280

[POV: Yessica] [Location: Edinburgh]Lewis didn't come home for dinner.That hadn't happened in three years. Not without a call. Not without a text that said running late, save me something.Yessica put Rose and Grace to bed at their usual times, listened to Grace negotiate for fifteen more minutes with the focused persistence of a nine-year-old who understood that persistence was its own argument, and said no with the calm authority of someone who had been saying no for nine years and had no intention of stopping.She left a plate in the oven. Sat down at the kitchen table with her laptop and a cup of tea that went cold.At nine forty-seven, she heard the front door.Lewis came into the kitchen and sat down without taking off his coat. That was the tell. Lewis always took off his coat."Tell me," she said.He pulled out his phone and placed it flat on the table between them. The message was still on the screen. Four words from an unknown number.We need to talk."When did this come

[POV: Yessica] [Location: Edinburgh — St. Andrews College Auditorium]The auditorium held four hundred people and felt like every single one of them was holding their breath.Yessica sat in the second row with Rose on her left, Grace on her right, and Ethan one seat over beside Lewis. The seats were padded and formal, the kind designed for occasions that required good posture. Rose had lasted approximately eleven minutes before she started drawing on the back of the program.On stage, the principal was finishing his remarks.Yessica glanced at Lewis. He was watching the stage, his expression controlled and present in the way he'd been all morning — the careful steadiness of someone carrying something heavy and refusing to let it show. She'd watched him choose this, minute by minute, since the call with Eleanor.She was proud of him for it.The principal said Claire's name.The auditorium applauded as Claire walked to the podium. Cap, gown, gold cords. Eighteen years old. She adjusted

[POV: Lewis] [Location: Edinburgh]He read the message twice.Tell Claire not to go to Stanford. Or I will.Lewis put the phone face-down on the table, excused himself with a word to Yessica — a look that said emergency, not catastrophe, stay here — and went back out to the corridor.He called Eleanor before the door closed behind him.She answered on the first ring. "I see it. He copied me.""He threatened my daughter.""He's trying to rattle you before Thursday. He doesn't have enough yet to file, which is why he's pushing personally instead of legally." Eleanor's voice was steady. She'd been doing this a long time. "If he contacts Claire directly, that changes our position significantly. Right now it's just a message to you.""What does he actually have?""A claim that you and Sienna had a professional relationship that damaged her reputation and that you used Sterling Industries resources to fund a suppression campaign after her stalking was exposed. It's thin. It relies on Sienn

[POV: Yessica] [Location: Edinburgh — Rose's Bedroom / Home]Lewis knocked twice more before the door opened.Rose stood in the gap, still in her school uniform, her eyes red but dry now. She'd stopped crying and rebuilt enough of the wall to face him. That was very Rose — never let anyone see the full thing."I'm fine," she said."You skipped class this afternoon," Lewis said. "Your school called."Something moved across her face. Not quite guilt. More like the look of someone who had calculated wrong."I just needed some air.""With a bag packed."The wall went up the rest of the way. She turned back into the room and sat on the edge of her bed, putting distance between them in the only way available to her.Lewis came in. Sat in the desk chair across from her. Didn't close the gap.Yessica stood in the doorway. She didn't go in — this one needed Lewis, not both of them at once. But she stayed close enough to hear."Where did you go?" Lewis asked."Just walked around.""For two hou

[POV: Lewis] [Location: Edinburgh — Kitchen / Home]He stared at the photo for a long time.Rose. Three months ago, judging by her school jacket — the old one, the navy one she'd stopped wearing in March. Standing outside a building he didn't recognize, some kind of converted warehouse or arts space. Next to her, a man. Dark jacket, late twenties or early thirties, relaxed posture, standing close enough to be familiar with her.Not touching her. But close.Lewis enlarged the image. Rose's expression was unguarded in a way he hadn't seen from her in months. Laughing at something. Completely at ease.He looked at the number. Edinburgh area code. No name. No further messages.He forwarded it to Eleanor with one line: Find out who sent this. Tonight if possible.Then he sat at the kitchen table and thought about what he knew and what he didn't.He knew Rose had been meeting this group for three months. He knew she'd said she hadn't been drinking, hadn't done anything dangerous. He knew t