All Chapters of You Had This Divorce Coming: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Gideon ended the call and looked at Lucille, something uneasy on his face. "Lucy—""No." Her voice was immediate and final. The softness from a few minutes earlier had vanished."If you bought it for me, then it's mine. It doesn't get shared. And the Westbrooks are one of Coasthaven's oldest families. Are you seriously telling me they can't source a quality Ginseng tonic? Rayne is clearly just…"She stopped herself and left the sentence unfinished.Gideon's instinct was to defend Rayne. "It's not that they can't get one. Rayne doesn't want to trouble the Westbrooks over something like this. You know how it is. The family is huge, and after she and Otto married, they built their own life abroad. She wouldn't want to call in a favor from the main branch over a tonic."Lucille let out a short, cold laugh. "Gideon, have you lost track of something basic? She married into the Westbrooks, not the Prescotts. As far as she's concerned, you're the outsider."Gideon had no answer. The sile

The call ended.Lucille's hand trembled around the phone. The anger rising in her was not hot. It burned cold and clear, and it did not fade.The story about looking after his best friend's wife, the talk of family loyalty and cousinly affection, all of it collapsed in the face of what Rayne had just said without shame or hesitation.Lucille drew a slow breath. Her body felt as insubstantial as paper, but her eyes had never been clearer."Sage Tower." She spoke the words quietly to herself, and what remained of her anger sharpened into something precise and cold.That project was the Prescott Group's most important undertaking of the year. It was also two years of her life. She had started from nothing, then carried it through site surveys, concept design, schemes torn apart and rebuilt from scratch, hundreds of all-nighters, and over 1,000 revised drawings. Every measurement, every line, every structural decision had come from her.In the early months of her pregnancy, still fig

Lucille sent the message at the same moment Gideon and Elaine stepped out of Rayne's hospital room after settling the baby to sleep.The night before, Gideon had intended to stay with Lucille and Lily. Rayne, however, had been in crisis all night. She claimed she had a fever, then dizziness and vomiting, then the fever again, one symptom after another. In the end, he had no choice but to prepare the Ginseng tonic and give it to her.Otto had called repeatedly, worried about Rayne's condition. To ease his friend's concerns, Gideon remained at her bedside throughout the night. It was past 6:00 a.m. before she finally drank the tonic and fell asleep.Elaine's phone chimed several times. She pulled it out and saw Lucille's name. As she read the message, the room seemed to tilt.'20,000,000 dollars?!" She did not play the recordings. She thrust the phone at Gideon. "Look at the wife you chose. She's extorting me now. 20,000,000 dollars, just like that."Gideon took the phone and read t

Gideon called Lucille several times in quick succession. Each call went to a recording that said the number was unavailable.He tried Nancy and Gwen, but neither picked up.He sat with frustration for a while, then gave up. As he drove on, he passed a jewelry boutique. Guilt over the tonic weighed on him. He had tried to find a replacement and found nothing comparable on the market, so he pulled over and bought a jewelry set instead.He was on his way to Evercrown Residences to drop it off when Howard called and diverted him to Velvet Bloom Bar. Howard said a few of the old group were getting together.…Gideon arrived and settled into the sofa. He had barely spoken when he found himself finishing a glass of whisky without recalling when he had started. He sat quieter than usual.Howard clapped him on the shoulder. "Rayne's back in the country. Shouldn't you be in a better mood?"Gideon's expression tightened. "Walt, why would you say it like that?"Howard realized his mistake

The room fell completely silent.Howard stood off to the side, mouth slightly open, visibly shaken by details he had never heard before.Gideon's expression darkened, the kind of darkness that came just before something broke. "Walter, what exactly are you saying?"Walter met his gaze with cold, steady eyes. "If you can't make Lucille happy, let her go. There is no shortage of men in this world who would."No one spoke.Before Gideon could respond, Walter looked away, turned, and walked out. The door slammed behind him.Howard stared at the closed door, then back at Gideon. He felt the situation collapsing around him and had no idea how to stop it. If he had known the evening would unfold like this, he would never have organized it.Now one man had stormed out after loudly defending Lucille, and the one left behind sat with both fists clenched, his expression suggesting he was running out of control.Howard would have given anything for a way out of the room. But when Gideon's