Lahat ng Kabanata ng His Billion-Dollar Regret: The Forgotten Wife Returns: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

POV: Yessica | Location: Edinburgh"Lewis called you three months ago," Yessica said.Not a question."Yes." Rafferty's voice was unhurried. The voice of a man who had decided, somewhere before she dialed, exactly what he was going to say. "He got my number through a mutual contact. Paul Vickers, I think — we both sit on the Edinburgh Chamber board.""What did he want?""He asked me three things." A pause. Clean. Deliberate. "Whether you'd ever mentioned my name. Whether you'd ever asked me for help. And whether, in my assessment, you were in any danger."Yessica pressed her back against the headboard. The flat was dark. Down on Victoria Street, she could still hear rain on stone."What did you tell him?""Nothing." Rafferty's tone didn't change. "I told him I didn't discuss third parties, and I ended the call.""And then?""And then I started paying attention." A pause. "Because a man who calls a near-stranger to ask if his estranged wife is safe — not where she is, not what she's do

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghDiana Osei's office smelled like coffee and strategic decisions made before eight in the morning.Yessica had been there since six forty-five."You didn't sleep," Diana said. Not a question."No."Diana set a mug in front of her anyway. Strong, black, no ceremony. Then pulled up the file on her screen and turned it to face Yessica."Here's where we are," she said. "The jurisdictional filing from yesterday is solid. Edinburgh courts have grounds to hear any future custody proceeding. Catherine Sterling's team can challenge it, but they'll lose. That part's done.""But it doesn't stop Friday.""No. It doesn't." Diana folded her hands. "What happens Friday is a private meeting between your father and Catherine's solicitor. We can't legally prevent that meeting. What we can do is make the information he carries into that room irrelevant.""How?""By filing a Parental Responsibility Declaration before Friday." Diana pulled up the second document. "This fo

POV: Yessica | Location: Edinburgh"Diana." Yessica's voice came out steadier than she felt. "What exactly did she file?""Petition for jurisdictional determination. New York Supreme Court, Family Division." Papers still moving in the background. "She's arguing that as Lewis's legal representative — under the POA — she has standing to ensure any proceedings affecting his parental rights occur under U.S. jurisdiction.""A power of attorney doesn't give her standing to file in family court.""Normally, no." Diana's voice was careful. "But the POA she used is unusually broad. It was drafted eighteen months ago and it covers, and I'm quoting directly, 'all matters pertaining to personal, familial, and legal interests of Lewis Edward Sterling in the event of his unavailability or incapacitation.'""He wasn't unavailable. He was in Edinburgh signing a document.""I know. That's the first thing we challenge." A pause. "But Yessica, this was filed at two-fifteen this afternoon. Before your fo

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghYessica didn't sleep.Not properly. She lay in the dark with Claire's weight pressing against her ribs and Pippa's message still unread on her phone and ran the same arithmetic over and over until it stopped feeling like betrayal and started feeling like something she could work with.At 5:47 AM she got up.Made tea. Stood at the window watching Victoria Street in the pre-dawn dark. The haar was down again, sitting in the valley of the old town, blurring the castle into grey.By six she had a plan.She called Rafferty.He answered on the second ring. No indication that it was before seven, no suggestion that the hour was unusual."You've read the filing," he said."Yes." She sat at the small desk. "I need to ask you something.""Ask.""Pippa Harcourt. Did you know?"A silence. Precise. Two seconds. Then: "I knew she'd been contacted. I didn't know the extent of her cooperation until Diana sent me the filing last night." A pause. "I should have flagge

POV: Yessica | Location: EdinburghShe called Pippa at noon.Not because she was ready. Because waiting longer wouldn't make her more ready, and the thing about grief was that it didn't actually get smaller if you fed it time. It just got heavier.Pippa answered on the second ring."Yess! How are you feeling? I've been thinking about you all morning."The warmth of it. Perfect, practiced, the exact frequency of a woman who had known Yessica long enough to know exactly what she needed to hear.Three months ago it would have worked."I need to ask you something," Yessica said.A beat. Small. Almost nothing."Of course. What's wrong?""When did Catherine Sterling's solicitor first contact you?"Silence.Not the silence of someone confused. The silence of someone caught.Three seconds. Four."Yessica—""The screenshot you sent me. October fourteenth, eleven forty-three PM." Yessica kept her voice level. Completely level. "You sent it into our chat without comment and then kept talking abo