All Chapters of Love, Lies, and a Billionaire's Regret : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

JONATHAN"You haven't answered me yet," I demanded The woman across the table looked at me with that particular patience of hers who had decided exactly how much she was going to say and in what order."I've heard you," she sighed "Then answer me." I banged my fist on the table, hard enough that the table shook. She reached for her water glass, took one small sip, and then set it down. Feeling unbothered about my request. "I will, but not yet."I looked at the photograph in my hand and I put it face down on the table because looking at it while trying to think clearly was not working."Who are you?" I asked again."My name is Elena Vale." She said straightforwardly, waiting to see what I did with it."I don't know that name. I've never heard it before.""You wouldn't know me, I don't move in your circles." She folded her hands. "I'm a private researcher. People hire me to locate items that have been hidden. Documents, records, accounts that don't match, truths that inconvenient peo

JONATHAN ***I had turned the photograph twice in disbelief.Both times, I had flipped it back over.Now, I left it face-up and sat in my chair, allowing myself to confront what I was truly feeling instead of trying to manage it into a controllable feeling.I remember Elena Vale saying that: 'That child didn't appear out of nowhere.'I drove back from that hotel bar straight to my penthouse. I had sat here for two hours, doing what I was best at...thinking clearly under pressure. But it wasn't working. Every time I lined up the logic and followed it to its conclusion, I ended up in the same spot.The same number that's eight months.I pushed back from the desk.I walked to the window and looked into the thin air, the city blurring as I did.She had been pregnant when she signed those papers, She had sat beside me in that hallway, calm and composed. She read every line of the divorce document, signed her name, handed it back, and said, 'If you want a divorce, I'll sign.'And she had k

PENELOPE "Penelope," Zara's voice on the phone was tight, in a way that hints at panic. "You need to come to the office right now." I was already dressed, My daughter was with Mrs. Park, I have finished my breakfast, the morning handover was done. I was about to sit down with my laptop and tackle two hours of work before my first call. "What happened?" I asked. "Just come. Please." I heard the voices over the call. Zara's, voice was high and our tech consultant Dami speaking quickly on his phone. "how did this happen, who has the keys, nobody should have..." Then I pushed through the office door, the room was destroyed. It wasn’t like a break-in in the movies, with things thrown everywhere and surfaces overturned for drama. This is more like a surgery, the attacker knew what they were after. Both desktop computers were wiped clean. They weren't stolen, they were still sitting on the desks with the screens cracked and hard drives removed. The filing cabinet in the corne

PENELOPE"You look terrible." I heard a voice at the door entrance Then I looked up from the desk and to my greatest surprise...Jonathan was standing in the doorway of my office space, or what remained of it. The screens were still cracked. Dami had done what he could with the recovery but the room still looked violated.Jonathan stood in it without any visible reaction, he just looked at me.I had not called him nor did I tell him anything about the incident. The only people who knew the extent of what had happened were Zara, Dami, Adrian, and the police officer who had taken our report that morning."How did you know about this?" I asked staring furiously at him as if he was the one who did it."The city is smaller than you think and I have everything under my watch" He walked in, stepping around a box of salvaged documents Dami had stacked near the door, and looked around the space the way he looked at everything, taking a full inventory before saying anything else. "When did it

PENELOPE *** I noticed the door before I reached the top of the stairs...It was open slightly, maybe two inches. It was as if I had forgotten to lock the door when I went out in a hurry OR maybe someone entered without wanting to be heard. I had locked that door this morning, I always locked that door. I stood on the landing and looked at the two-inch gap and my body understood before my mind did. The cold moved through me from the inside. Not the air, or the building, but from inside. The feeling only comes when something is wrong and you haven't confirmed it yet but you already know. Then I pushed the door open and called. "Mrs. Park?" My voice a bit shaky. The apartment was quiet, too quiet for a room that has a toddler in it. "Mrs. Park," I called out louder this time. But my response...Nothing. I moved to the kitchen and it was empty. The cup Mrs. Park used when she sat with the baby was still on the counter. It was half full and the milk had gone cold. "N