All Chapters of Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret : Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

PENELOPE "It's everywhere." Adrian stood already when I showed him the message. He clutched his own phone, scrolling through what I knew must be the same cascade of notifications flooding my screen. His face twisted into a controlled panic expression. "Your mum sent you a voice note after the call explaining everything that we have just settled?" "That part," I confirmed. "And everything else." "Seraphina had it all," I said, hearing the flatness in my own voice. "She had access to everything she needed, and she waited until we were out of the country. Until there was distance and a headline and no way to respond before it spread like wildfire." "She's been planning this." His concluded "She's always been planning something," I said, tasting bitterness on my tongue. "I just kept believing the version of her that appeared helpful." I walked to the railing, needing the open air, that suddenly felt like they were closing in. My phone erupted with calls. Not just Jonathan anymo

PENELOPE I stared at the comment for a long time. The account had no pictures, no name. Then I took a screenshot.I did not Google Monaco.I was trying to think through the comments, then somewhere outside a car alarm wailed and stopped.I did not sleep that night. Instead, I watched the hours crawl past on the clock, each minute a small eternity of questions I couldn't answer and didn't want to ask.***The next morning I did something I had not done in months...I made a decision without consulting anyone.I dressed, choosing clothes that made me feel armored. I dropped Nora at Mrs. Park's door, as her babysitter with a bag and a brief explanation that involved the words I need a few hours. Mrs. Park nodded without asking further because she had been understood.I walked to Adrian's building, and the doorman recognised me and let me up, offering a polite smile.Adrian opened the door before I could knock, as if he'd been waiting just on the other side.He was in a white shirt. The s

PENELOPE "You look stunning tonight and also different too," Jonathan said the moment I sat down across him at the restaurant he had chosen. It was private. And we sat at a corner table at a place in Belgravia where the lighting was designed to make everything look intimate and the menus had no prices because if you needed to ask you had made an error in venue selection. He was already there when I arrived. I somehow like the version of him that has been showing up lately. "Different how," I said. "Quieter," he said. "Maybe I'm just tired," I said. "No," he said. "I know what tired looks like on you. This is something else." He was equally good at reading faces. "Order wine," I said. "Then say what you wanted to say." He ordered, and the waiter poured it into the glass. "I've been trying to find a way to say this." "Stop finding a way" I said. "Just talk." "When I came to Italy," he said. "With the documents." "I told you I had them verified," he said. "I to

PENELOPE The profile picture was tiny, and the coastline was unmistakable. I had sat on that terrace, and stared at that exact angle of water and rock and a cypress tree at two in the morning.Someone had taken that photograph from Adrian's Cap-Ferrat property.The person who had been on that terrace had created an account three days before Seraphina's post and left one comment, telling me to ask about Monaco.Which meant they'd known the post was coming.I tried to think of the people who had access to that terrace.Adrian, Me, His staff, The housekeeper, The driver.And JonathanJonathan had come to the house that morning, and sat in the courtyard. He'd been on that terrace briefly while I went to speak to Adrian.Briefly was enough for him to take one photograph from a phone.But the account was created three days earlier while he was still in London.Someone had known, three days before Seraphina's post went live, that it would be published.Someone had positioned themselves.T

JONATHAN'S POV *** BEFORE THE IMPACT The restaurant had been good...That's what I thought as I slid into the car. The dinner had gone well. Penelope had looked at me differently tonight...it wasn't the usual way she looks at me. Whatever that difference was, it felt like progress. Henry had the evening off. I'd made that decision without much thought. A small private dinner, and a quiet drive home, and no need for a driver. I was behind the wheel myself. The sidewalk was clear at that hour. The Thames stretched out on my left, black and wide, the city lights catching the surface in that way that looks like a scene from a film you saw once and never forgot. I was thinking about Penelope, and the way she smiled. That's when I noticed the car. Not immediately though. It had been there for a while before I recognized it consciously. It was black, and following at a distance that was close enough, but far enough to seem innocent. Any one at the moment will think it was j