All Chapters of Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

84 Chapters

Chapter Eleven: The Contract.

Penelope's POV Clara called me at exactly four pm the next day."Mr. Blackwood wants to meet you tomorrow morning," she said. Her tone was professional, leaving no room for questions. "At nine o'clock on the fortieth floor." I stood in my small apartment, phone pressed to my ear, listening to the kitchen tap drip. "I'll be there," I said. Then I sat on the bed, stared at the wall, and gave it a long thought. ***The fortieth floor was different from the fourteenth floor. It was quieter. There were fewer people, and the light came from recessed panels, giving everything a classy glow. Jonathan's assistant, a young man named Daniel with a necktie, walked me down the corridor and knocked twice on an open door. "Ms. Penelope is here," he announced, stepping aside. I walked in and Jonathan stood beside his desk. He held a pen in his hand, and a document lay open in front of him, but he wasn’t looking at it. He was watching me the moment I crossed the threshold. "Close the do

Last Updated : 2026-04-17

Chapter Twelve: The First Day

Penelope's POV *** On Monday morning "You're early." Daniel looked up from his desk when I stepped out of the elevator at eight forty-five, his tie slightly disorganized, a half-eaten granola bar beside his keyboard. He seemed like the kind of person who arrived early every day and was always slightly surprised when someone else did too. "Is that a problem?" I asked. "No, no." He sat straight. "Mr. Blackwood isn't in yet. I can show you your workspace." My workspace turned out to be a desk positioned directly outside Jonathan's office. Not anywhere down the corridor with the other support staff but right there... outside his office, six feet from his door, angled so that anyone coming in or out of his office would pass within arm's length of me. I set my bag down and looked at the setup. New laptop, already logged in with my name. A printed schedule for the week is in an arranged folder on the left. A notepad and two pens. "He set this up himself," Daniel said, the

Last Updated : 2026-04-17

Chapter Thirteen: What He Noticed

Jonathan's POV ***"She declined the tea again," Daniel said it casually as he placed my morning cup on my desk, not looking at me as he did. He used that careful tone that tells you he's checking to see if you care about something."I noticed," I replied."This is the third week running.""Daniel," I called."Yes, sir?""Go do something useful."He left and I turned my chair toward the glass partition.Penelope was already at her desk, her head bent down on her screen as she typed. She had arrived before me again, as she did every single day without missing, as if trying to prove a point. Her black blazer looked perfect. From a distance, she looked completely fine.But I knew she wasn't.She had lost weight. She moved with caution. Every morning around eleven, she would stand up, say nothing to anyone, and disappear for exactly twelve minutes...Every single morning.I had stopped pretending I wasn't counting.***At half past ten, I called her in for a schedule review.She entered w

Last Updated : 2026-04-18

Chapter Fourteen: I crossed the line

Penelope's POV The whispers began before Seraphina even stepped away.I heard them. Every single one of them. People lowered their voices but didn’t stop speaking. They pretended to focus on their screens while their eyes wandered.I kept my pen moving across the page. "Write. Just write. Don’t look up. Don’t give them anything to feed on." I whispered.My hand stayed steady. I made sure of that. I wrote three lines that meant nothing; marks on paper, something for my hand to do while the office whispers in excitement.Seraphina's heels faded into the distance. The elevator doors opened and closed.Then the room returned to its usual sounds of keyboards clicking and quiet phone voices...but not quite, because that energy still lingered, It made everyone work a little too quietly.I turned the page and kept writing.Twenty minutes later, Jonathan's office door swung open. "Penelope."I held my notepad, walked in, and sat opposite him.He sat behind his desk like nothing had happened

Last Updated : 2026-04-18

Chapter Fifteen: Again

Penelope's POV The city was still dark when I zipped my last bag.Five fourteen in the morning. The radiator and tap were no longer making any noise unlike before. I stood in the middle of the apartment and looked around at the small, bare space I had called mine for a few weeks.The marks on the wall where I'd hung absolutely nothing. The table where I'd eaten alone every night. The window looked out onto a brick wall.I had come here with one suitcase and a travel bag and I was leaving with the same bag.I picked up both, opened the door, and walked out without looking back at the room.I had decided that part before I slept. No looking back at the room, the building, the city for now. Looking back was how you talked yourself out of things you needed to do.I had left the key on the table with a Simple, polite note for Mr. Smith. I thanked him for the short tenancy and left no forwarding address.The stairwell was cold. My footsteps echoed on the way down.Outside, the street was

Last Updated : 2026-04-18

Chapter Sixteen: Rising

Penelope's POV A FEW WEEKS LATER "You look exhausted." Mrs Park, my new landlady said."Good morning to you too, Mrs. Park."My landlady stood in her door with a cup of tea in each hand. Her silver hair was knotted into a pigtail. At seventy-one, she barely reached my shoulder and spoke in a way that showed that she had stopped caring about others’ opinions decades ago.She extended one cup toward me.I took it. "You were up at five again," she said."I had a deadline.""You always have a deadline." She glanced at my stomach, now round under my oversized sweater. "You need to sleep. The baby needs you to sleep.""I've slept for four hours.""That's not enough sleeping. That's a nap with ambition." She pointed at the cup. "Drink all of it."I drank all of it and even asked for more.***Three months had passed since I left the office, where I had worked under Jonathan.The new city felt smaller and more peaceful. People greeted strangers on the street unlike the other city where ever

Last Updated : 2026-04-19

Chapter Seventeen: Her Name

Jonathan's POV THREE MONTHS LATER. "You haven't touched your food." Seraphina sat beside me at the dining table, her fork resting at the side of her plate. She watched me patiently all through the evening. "I'm not hungry," I replied. "You said that yesterday." "Yes, I wasn't hungry yesterday, either." She put her fork down completely. "Jonathan. Talk to me." "There's nothing to talk about." "You've been in that chair for twenty minutes, scrolling through your phone mindlessly, and you haven't said anything meaningful since I arrived." She leaned forward. "There is something you're deciding not to say." I turned to her. She was in one of the pale blue dresses that I liked. The one I bought for her when she demanded it. Her hair was well arranged in a wavy style. She had come over with food she cooked herself, which she rarely did. She set the table carefully and genuinely tried her best throughout the entire evening. "I'm tired," I confessed. "You're not tired

Last Updated : 2026-04-19

Chapter Eighteen: The Woman in the Room.

Penelope's POV ***AT AN EVENT "Stop trembling with the bracelet." Adrian stood beside me, holding two glasses of water. He gave me that look he saved for moments when I was trying to appear calmer than I felt."I'm not trembling," I replied."You’ve adjusted it four times in the last minute." He handed me a glass. "Here, drink this. Are you fine?""Of course I am, just a little nervous.""I understand, it can be hard on the first day of your big event. Take a deep breath and leave the bracelet alone." He smiled playfully.I let my hand drop flat on the table.The venue was filled with people, not really overcrowded, but comfortably busy. It felt like a crowd that wanted to be here rather than one that felt forced to attend. The warm lighting, soft music mixing with conversations, and the smell of good food drifting from somewhere to my right created a pleasant atmosphere. Adrian had done well by picking the right place for this event.This was my first public appearance since the

Last Updated : 2026-04-20

Chapter Nineteen: Not Yours Anymore

JONATHAN She didn't run...That was the first thing I noticed about her.I crossed half the room before I consciously decided to move. When Penelope saw me coming, she straightened her shoulders and stood her ground. That gesture hit me harder than anything else in that room.The woman I remembered from our marriage had a way of making herself smaller in tough moments. Not obviously, just slightly. She would pull in, like she was bracing herself.This woman did not pull in...She stood there in that navy dress. She watched me approach as if she had been expecting it and already decided how it would go.I stopped in front of her.For a moment, neither of us spoke.She looked different. Not in superficial ways, like her dress or hair, though those had changed too. Something changed in her face. The guarded softness around her eyes was gone. What remained was steadiness."Penelope," I called."Jonathan." Her voice was even. No warmth and no hostility... Completely level."You look..." I p

Last Updated : 2026-04-21

Chapter Twenty: Caught

PENELOPE I walked away from him before he could say anything else again.Not dramatically, I just turned, put one foot in front of the other, and moved back toward the main floor where the noise and the people were. Jonathan Blackwood would have to follow if he wanted to continue the conversation.He didn't follow right away.I found a quiet spot near the far wall. I stood there with my glass of water and my composed expression. I told myself firmly that what had just happened was fine. I had handled it. I had said the right things and stood my ground, and the slight unevenness in my breathing was just the surprise of seeing him, it would settle soon.But it didn’t settle.Adrian appeared at my side. "Are you okay?" he asked."Yes.""He came over," I said quietly."Yeah, I saw him." Adrian's voice remained neutral, but his expression looked a bit different. "What did he say?""He mentioned the investigator's report. The one about the river incident."Adrian went still next to me. "He

Last Updated : 2026-04-21

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