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

127 Chapters

Chapter Twenty-One: Low blood sugar

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

Chapter Twenty-Two: Don't Waste Your Time

JONATHAN"I need you to clarify something," I called out to the doctor.The doctor looked at me with a calm expression that many doctors seemed to have. His hands rested loosely in front of him as he decided how much to say about a woman who hadn’t mentioned my name. "I'm not her physician," he said carefully."I understand that.""So anything I say would be based on observations, not disclosure.""Then give me your observations."He studied me carefully to be sure I was using the information for a good cause."The way she's carrying herself, like she's protecting something," he said. "Her pale complexion, the dizziness, the way she positioned herself when she stood. Those aren't just symptoms of low blood sugar. A woman in her condition needs real rest. Not...""Jonathan!!" The high-pitched voice came from my left, and I turned before I could stop myself.Seraphina was walking toward me in a white dress, its fabric reflecting the light. Her expression showed the warmth and ease she t

Chapter Twenty-Three: Just You and Me

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

Chapter Twenty-Four: They Always Chose Her.

PENELOPE I was staring at the ceiling at around two in the morning. The apartment had gone quiet. My daughter is asleep in the next room, one hand curled beside her face the way as usual, in a cute way.But my eyes were open and my mind had gone somewhere I hadn't invited it to.All the way back to when we were kids."Penelope, apologize to your sister." One of the thoughts flashed into my memory.***Our house had been beautiful.That was always the first thing people said when they walked in. The high ceilings, the wide staircase, and the chandelier in the entrance hall. Everything in that house was maintained, curated, and presented, because appearances were my mother's religion and she practised it daily.We had family dinners at a long table with cloth napkins. We had a garden that was kept trimmed to the same height every week. We had a holiday photograph taken every December in matching outfits, framed and hung in the hallway, each year lined up beside the last.We looked, fro

Chapter Twenty-Five: Outside in the Cold

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

Chapter Twenty-Six: Five Forty-Seven

PENELOPE I looked through the peephole again because my mind struggled to accept what I had just seen. Then I stepped back from the door It was Jonathan.He stood in the hallway of my building at five forty-seven in the morning, wearing a dark leather jacket. His hair looked a bit messy, likely from a long night spent trying to find an address that wasn't disclosed in any public records.I paced the room, my heart beating loud to my hearing.He knocked again. "Penelope." His voice was laced with fury. "I know you're there. I heard you walk to the door."Then I closed my eyes to be certain that it was not a dream. But his voice sounded too real to be a dream"I'm not leaving here till you come out," he said. "You can wait as long as you want. I'll still be here."The bang on the door woke up my daughter. I knew this because she made a noise, not a cry though.Then I opened the door.We looked at each other and neither of us said anything.He looked tired. I could see it in his should

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Don't Lie to Me

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

Chapter Twenty-Eight: She Knows

PENELOPE Jonathan left without getting an answer though I'm not sure if he believed it.All because I stood in that hallway with my daughter crying behind the door and my heart racing in my chest. I looked at him and stayed silent.He read my silence as he always did carefully, then he said, “This conversation isn’t over yet” before walking out.The door slammed shut, then I went straight to her room.I lifted her from the cot and held her against my chest. I stood there just breathing while she calmed down against my shoulder."I know," I said. "Everything is going to be okay."She wasn’t convinced and neither was I.I fed her, changed her, and got her settled in the bouncer chair by the window. The yellow birds chirped beside her. She watched it with focused attention, her small fist raised, trying to grab hold of it.Jonathan had heard her...He had looked at that door, heard her, and told me 'not to lie to him'. And left without saying anything.This meant he was out there now, st

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Confession

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

Chapter Thirty: The Photo

JONATHAN The message came at eleven in the morning with no name or context attached to it. It was only the time, location, and one line underneath that made me read it twice 'About Penelope.' I read it again. I had been sitting at my desk pretending to work since I got back from her apartment that morning, the conversation still unfinished in my head, her face still in my mind when I'd asked about the baby and she'd said nothing. That silence had followed me all the way back to the city and into this office and it was still here now, sitting beside me like an uninvited guest. I should have ignored the message, it was from an unknown number and there was no means of identification. These are the type of messages that rational people delete immediately. The address was a small hotel bar in the western part of the city. The area was quiet with low lighting even at midday, the place where people would speak privately to avoid being overheard. Three tables are occupie

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