All Chapters of My Ex-husband Billion Dollar Mistakes : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

101 Chapters

Chapter 81- The Confrontation and New Threat

POV: NicholeThe gravel driveway behind the clinic was quiet, but the air felt thin. Elena walked out from the basement cellar door three minutes after us. Her face was smeared with gray dust, and her eyes were red. When she saw Raymond and Beatrice standing by the silver car, she stopped.I looked at her as my hand was still locked in Xavier’s grip. The silver keychain with Mira's private phone number sat in the dirt between us."You called them too," I said as my voice shook and the pain of her choice felt like a physical weight in my heart. "You did not just give the address to Mira but you called Raymond,Elena?"Elena shook her head fast. "No, Nichole. I did not call him, I swear.""Do not lie to her anymore," Xavier said as he stepped forward. His bare feet were dirty from the basement floor, and his breathing was shallow. "You sold us out to protect your uncle’s dock. Did you think Mira would keep your secret?"Raymond took two steps toward me as he ignored Xavier completely

Chapter 82- The Mother's Ploy

POV: Xavier's MotherThe tea had gone cold in the porcelain cup, but I did not call the maid to change it. I sat in the morning room of the town townhouse, the morning newspapers spread across the mahogany table. On the front page of the city network section, Mira Vance stood in the black mud of the railway yard, her white coat smeared with grease and her face a mask of undignified rage under the flashlights of the police.Foolish girl, I thought. Utterly foolish.Mira’s father had built an empire on the docks through crude intimidation, and it was clear his daughter possessed his same lack of restraint. She had turned a private family matter into a public spectacle and Vance's name was being dragged through the mud on the morning television broadcasts because she could not contain her temper. She was no longer an asset but a liability to our family’s corporate recovery.I looked at the legal brief my secretary had left on the corner of the table and it detailed Nichole's Ex-husban

Chapter 83- The Personal Attack

POV: NicholeThe morning news arrived as Elena brought them in a plastic grocery bag, her hands shaking so hard the cheap handles rattled. She dropped three local tabloids onto the wooden table."It is all over the digital boards too, Nichole," Elena whispered, stepping back toward the door as if the papers might explode. "Mira paid the lifestyle editors and they run it every fifteen minutes."I leaned over the table and the front page of The City Ledger carried a giant, grainy photograph of me from three years ago. The headline was printed in thick, black ink written How an Unemployed Legal Clerk Broke the Vance Legacy.The article was a collection of calculated lies and it claimed I had deliberately targeted Xavier while still living under Raymond’s roof. It called me a strategic opportunist who had used a pregnancy to force a billionaire out of his family board seat. They had even fabricated quotes from anonymous "childhood neighbors" claiming I had always talked about finding

Chapter 84- The Corporate War

POV: XavierThe red numbers on the computer screen updated every thirty seconds and each flash of the digital text showed that the company was losing value. The stock price of Vance Global Logistics was down fourteen percent since the opening bell.I sat at the wooden table in the house which smelled now of old fish crates and river mud. It was very different from the clean offices where I had spent my entire adult life. I had wanted a clear line between my family’s past and my future with Nichole. I had spoken plainly on the courthouse steps, but the financial market did not care about truth or the family safety. It cared about stability. By declaring my marriage to the public, I had told the international trading desks that the Vance leadership was locked in a bitter domestic dispute.While I railed through my thoughts, the phone beside the tablet vibrated against the wood and the screen displayed the private line of Arthur Pendleton. He was the senior chairman of our board of dire

Chapter 85- The Northern Alliance

POV: XavierA heavy engine roared near the quiet pier at midnight and a large black truck drove through the rain and stopped by the fish warehouse. Mud splashed across the side of the vehicle.The door opened and Rex Vance stepped out into the downpour. He did not wear an expensive suit like the office managers in the city but wore a heavy leather jacket and thick boots covered in grease. Rex was my cousin and he had spent ten years running our family's cargo routes in the northern hills.Rex walked into the warehouse without knocking, wiped the rain from his face and looked around the small room. He looked at the cheap bed, the table, and then at Nichole who was sitting on a wooden stool near the stove."So this is the woman who dropped our stock price," Rex said as he walked towards us unbothered by what harm his words are already doing to me and much more to Nichole. He walked right up to the table and ignored me, facing Nichole. "My father sent me the money codes, Xavier. But I a

Chapter 86- Public Declaration

POV: NicholeThe next morning. We were invited to court.I knew it was going to be another paparazzi as a group of reporters sighted Xavier and surged towards us again."Keep your head down and stay close to my side, Nichole," Xavier said, his arm instantly turning into a hard band around my waist as he stepped forward.The white light of forty camera flashes hit my eyes like a physical blow. Shouting reporters broke through the entrance pushing past the two security guards to thrust their microphones toward my face."Nichole! Is it true you are evading a state-ordered psychiatric evaluation?" a woman screamed from the front line."Did you trap a Vance executive with a pregnancy to pay off your family's debts?" a man shouted, his lens clinking against the buttons of my coat.I covered my face into Xavier’s chest and kept my hand flat over my stomach. The guards shoved their shoulders against the crowd, but a reporter in a red jacket stepped directly into our path, blocking the door o

Chapter 87-Unmasking Deceit

POV: NicholeAfter that night, the next day…."You are sitting in my chair," Beatrice said as she slammed her designer leather bag into the marble table in front of me.The expensive café was full of quiet socialites and the sound of porcelain cups, but Beatrice did not care about being loud. She stood over me with narrow eyes, waiting for me to get up and leave.I stayed completely still, reached into my coat, pulled out the silver flash drive from Xavier's mother, and dropped it on the stone table right next to her bag."Sit down, Beatrice," I said. My voice was totally flat and I did not show any of the fear she expected from a divorcee. "We need to talk about Raymond's tax records."Beatrice laughed contextually, as she slid into the chair opposite me as she crossed her legs and leaned back with a smug smile. "You think you can scare me with some junk from Xavier's mother? You are just a clerk, Nichole. You do not know how the city works up here.""I know numbers," I said as I pu

Chapter 88-A Love On Display

POV: XavierThe next day…At the court."Stand aside," I said, my voice cutting through the quiet lobby of Vance Tower.The head of security stepped back, his hand dropping away from the electronic turnstile. He looked at the thick stack of federal commerce injunction papers in my left hand, then at Nichole, who stood close to my right side. My hand stayed pressed firmly against her small back, guiding her forward through the marble corridor. She did not look at the polished floor or the guards. Her chin was up and her fingers locked tightly in mine.We rode the private elevator to the top floor in total silence. When the doors slid open, the sound of Arthur Pendleton's dry voice carried through the double mahogany doors of the main boardroom."The proxy votes are verified," Arthur was saying. "If there are no objections, we will sign the executive transition over to Raymond's legal bloc…"Suddenly, I kicked the heavy doors open and the wood slammed against the interior walls with a

Chapter 89- Love Against The World

POV: Nichole"Step back and let her speak," Xavier commanded, his arm like a solid wall between my side and the sea of microphones waiting at the bottom of the Vance Tower steps.The wind blew the heavy rain across the concrete, but the crowd of fifty reporters did not move. Their camera flashes fired at us in a blinding rhythm. I took a deep breath, stepped out from behind Xavier's shoulder, and looked directly into the central news lens. My voice shook on the first word, but I did not stop."I know what you have been writing about me," I said, my voice carrying over the sound of the idling city traffic. "You call me a grifter from the slums. You say I am unstable and Raymond told you I don't belong in this building because I grew up with mud on my boots. He is right. I know the cost of rent, I know what it looks like when a legal collector threatens your family, and I know the human cost of corporate greed."I turned my head slightly, meeting Xavier’s eyes and he was watching me wit

Chapter 90-A Desperate Flight

POV: Xavier"Do not look at the wall, Nichole," I said as I placed my hands on her face to turn her eyes away from the black writing.Her skin felt very cold. She was shaking, and she held her hands over her stomach as she looked at the broken furniture. Raymond’s men had destroyed our room to prove they could find us anywhere."We must leave right now," I said as I spoke clearly and looked directly into her eyes to make her focus on me. "Rex has a protected house in the northern hills. It has security guards, strong gates, and thick glass. You and the baby will be safe there.""It is just another prison, Xavier," she whispered and I could feel she was so cold that her teeth clicked together. "It is just another place with guards and walls.""It is only for a short time, Nichole," I promised as I leaned down and touched my forehead against hers. "I am going to fix the financial audit, put Raymond in jail, and buy us a quiet piece of land and no one will ever find us there. But tonig

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