บททั้งหมดของ Billionaire's Biggest Regret : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

The Weight of normal.The eggs were getting cold.I knew this because I had been standing at the kitchen counter in our house on East 73rd Street for four minutes listening to the city wake up outside the window. I was wondering what kind of woman I had become, cooking breakfast for a man who was never going to sit down and eat it.I slid the plate to the side anyway. Then I heard Damien’s voice from the hallway, sharp and clipped like it always is in the morning before nine. He was on the phone. He was always on the phone."I don't care what Chen's team projected; those numbers don't account for the Seoul restructure push the call to Thursday," he said. There was a pause. "No, Thursday, not Friday. There is a difference."Damien walked into the kitchen already dressed and ready to go. He barely glanced at the plate. He did not even look at me."Fine, send it over before noon, and I'll look at it on the way," he said. He lowered the phone. Dropped it into his breast pocket. Then he r

Lunch for oneI could barely walk.I stood in the kitchen for 10 minutes with a takeout bag from Damien’s Italian restaurant in Lexington. Our wedding anniversary had been a disaster. I thought it would be a bad idea to show up unannounced at Knights Shops and make a peace offer. It was the kind of thing that seemed hopeless from the outside. Then I remembered the night. Damien was tired and looking at me from a distance. Before I could talk myself out of it, i grabbed the bag and Left.The halls of Knight Enterprises smelled like money. The fresh air, the marble floors, and the quiet made me feel like everyone inside was very important and very busy. The front desk receptionist recognized me. "Mrs. Knight," she said with a smile, as if I was a fragile thing that just came through the main entrance . "Mr. Knight is in a meeting. Should I tell him you're here?" "No, don’t worry about it, I'll leave this here," and I put the bag on the table. "Actually… I’ll go myself now. I'll be don

Sign hereI had the papers ready on Wednesday.I put them on the dining table, made sure the edges were straight, and placed a pen on top. Then I sat on the couch. Waited.Mara had called me three times already.When she called, she said: "You should not be alone for this.""I have been alone throughout this marriage. I can manage one night," I said"Aria..." she said"I will call you after I promise"."If he tries to… ""Mara. I'm okay."A long pause. "I'll keep my phone on.""I know you will."“good luck” she said before hanging up the phone.Damien came home around eight. He dropped his key on the floor, took off his jacket, and walked into the living room while still loosening his tie. He stopped when he saw the papers on the table.He said, "What is this?" and looked at the papers,"You know what it is". I saidHe walked slowly to the table. Picked up the first page. I watched as his jaw tightened while he read it."You had the papers drawn without talking to me". His voice was f

Labor Aria’s POVMy water broke on a Tuesday, which felt right, since everything that mattered in my life seemed to insist on Tuesdays.I was standing in the middle of a client's half-finished dining room in Fort Greene, holding a fabric swatch up to the window light, when I felt the first contraction. I told myself it was Braxton Hicks. I had been telling myself that for three days. My body disagreed with a violence that left no room for negotiation.I called Mara from the sidewalk, doubled over against a parked car, a stranger asking if I needed help and me waving him off because some instinct in me did not want to be a woman crying on a sidewalk in front of people who didn't know me."I'm on my way," Mara said. Her voice had the flat, fast calm of someone who had rehearsed this exact call in her head a hundred times. "Don't you dare have this baby on Myrtle Avenue.""I'll try.""Aria.""I'm trying, Mara."She got a cab faster than should have been possible. She got me to the hospi

Damien's POVThe Sixth Chair"You're not eating," my mother said.She sat across from me at Le Bernardin, her fork resting against the edge of her plate, watching me the way she used to watch me as a boy pretending I hadn't broken something in the house."I'm eating," I said, and cut into the fish to prove it."You've moved that piece around your plate four times. I counted." She set her fork down entirely now. "Damien.""Don't.""I haven't said anything yet.""You're about to."She smiled, small and unimpressed, the smile she gave board members right before she voted against them. "Fine. I won't ask about the divorce. I'll ask about the house instead. Are you still sleeping in the guest room?"I set my own fork down harder than I meant to. The sound made the couple at the next table glance over, then look away fast when they placed my face."I sleep in my own room.""With six chairs at a table for a family of one." She reached across and touched my hand, quick, before I could pull it