All Chapters of Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

PENELOPE "He's not my husband," I said it even before Jonathan could open his mouth.The doctor's glance kept bouncing through us slowly.I stood up from the bench, which was a decision my legs disagreed with, but I stood anyway and kept my weight distributed carefully and made sure my face said nothing it wasn't supposed to."I'm sorry," I said to the doctor, my voice coming out steady, which I was proud of. "It's low blood sugar. I haven't eaten properly today. That's all."The doctor stared at me with an expression that showed he knew I might be lying to him. "You should sit back down," he said."I'm fine now. Thank you.""Your complexion is pale.""I'll get something to eat. I appreciate you checking." I smiled at him, politely, the smile that said that I wanted the conversation to be over.He looked at me for one more moment. Then at Jonathan. Then he reached into his breast pocket and held out a card."Call if you need anything," he said. "Don't ignore the dizziness. Not in you

PENELOPE Back in my apartment, the door slammed shut at my back and I stood in the corridor in the dark.I didn't move for a few minutes, I just stood there with my back against the door and my bag still on my shoulder. My heels still on, and the night outside still pressing against the windows, and everything I had held together for the last four hours slowly, quietly coming undone.My chin went first...That small, involuntary tremble that starts when the body has been braced for too long and finally gets permission to stop.Then my hands dangled loosely from my body, almost useless at that point. But I still managed to lean against the wall with it and reflect on how the day went.The event, the way people lined up to talk to me, Claire Mensah, and her business card. The happy look on everyone's face in the room showed how satisfied they were.And then Jonathan.Standing at the entrance like the city had just decided to send him directly into the one room he should not have walked

PENELOPE After a while, I cleaned up my mess...the vase I broke.'They chose her every single time.'The words lingered longer than expected in my mind as the next memory came back to me.I hadn't searched for it, It appeared on its own. It's always the bad ones slipping in unnoticed like cold air.***I was thirteen at that time.My family held a large dinner party, one out of many that year. My parents loved those evenings, with the long table set with their best china, hired staff, and the laughter of adults that echoed through the house, making it feel completely different.Seraphina and I were not supposed to be in the dining room."Stay upstairs," my mother told us, her tone light yet firm, the type of order that was not open for discussion.We stayed upstairs for about forty minutes.Seraphina got bored first as usual and wanted to see the desserts. She said she just wanted to look, claiming no one would notice if we stood in the doorway for just a minute.I warned her against

PENELOPE "It's my neighbour's baby." The words came out smoothly even before thinking about it. It came out fast and delivered in a way that made it sound true.I moved at the same time that he moved, repositioning myself, trying to block him from entering the room in a way that wasn't obvious."The walls in this building are thin," I said. "You can hear everything. She's had the baby for about four months now and every morning you could hear her gurgle."Jonathan looked at me but there was a problem, he had always been good at reading people, he could even read the tiniest odd detail and right now his full attention was sitting on my face with the patience of someone who had decided to wait till he noticed a weird detail."Your neighbour?" he asked."Yes, Mrs. Park is on the ground floor." I kept my voice even. "Was there something you came here to actually say, Jonathan? Because it's not yet six and I haven't slept properly and this is what you came for..." I hadn't finished talk

PENELOPE "Do you remember the garden parties?" Seraphina moved away from me slowly, drifting toward the window, her cream coat catching the early morning light coming through the curtains. She ran one finger along the windowsill like she was checking for dust."I'm talking about the big ones," she continued, not waiting for my answer. "The ones at our house when we were still children. You always stood beside me in all of them, I used to watch you do it.""I liked those parties." She picked up one of my daughter's muslin cloths from the kitchen counter and looked at it, turning it in her hands. "I mean, I liked how people looked at me. How they called my name first when we walked into the room." She set the cloth down. "You never seemed to care about that. I always thought that was strange." I didn't know what to say to her, so I mirrored her movement. She moved to the small bookshelf near the wall, trailing her fingers across the spines with ease.Anyone around would think I'm th