Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Billionaire Boss's Secret Heir: Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

Sophia's POVI kept checking my phone the entire drive to the testing center, half convinced the million dollars sitting in my account was some kind of glitch that might disappear the moment I looked away from it for too long."It's real," Ethan said, glancing over from the passenger seat, apparently reading my mind. "You can stop checking. I promise the bank isn't going to take it back.""I've never had this much money in my life. I've never had a tenth of this much money in my life.""Get used to it. There's more where that came from, if you keep driving like you did yesterday.""You can't just keep handing me a million dollars every time I successfully operate a vehicle.""Watch me."I laughed, shaking my head, and focused back on the road ahead, my hands steady on the wheel in a way that still felt like a small miracle every time I noticed it. The testing center came into view a few minutes later, a squat, unremarkable building tucked between a gas station and a strip mall, nothin

Sophia's POV"I've decided something," I announced the next morning, pulling ingredients out of the pantry with a determination that made Ethan look up from his coffee with visible suspicion."That's usually how trouble starts.""I'm going to teach you how jollof rice is actually supposed to be made.""I've had jollof rice.""You've had jollof rice from a restaurant that charges forty dollars for a plate the size of my palm. That doesn't count." I set a bag of rice on the counter with a small, dramatic flourish. "Today you're getting the real version. My mother's recipe.""I'm intrigued and slightly afraid.""You should be a little afraid. This is sacred territory."He laughed, setting down his coffee and rolling up his sleeves with the same eager energy he brought to most things lately, and I handed him an apron that he accepted with far more grace than I expected, given the number of expensive suits I'd watched him wear without a single wrinkle over the past several months."First r

Sophia's POVEthan had started calling me that lately. My girl. It slipped out sometimes without him seeming to notice, tucked into ordinary sentences the way other people said someone's name, and every time it happened something warm caught low in my chest, still not quite used to it after everything."My girl's getting big," he said that morning, watching me struggle slightly to reach a mug on the top shelf, my growing stomach making the stretch considerably harder than it used to be."I'm not that big yet.""You're carrying two entire people. I'd say you've earned some bigness.""That's a very generous way of calling me huge.""I would never call you huge. I said big. There's a difference." He crossed the kitchen and reached the mug down for me easily, pressing a kiss to my forehead in the same motion. "My girl deserves coffee without an obstacle course."I laughed, accepting the mug, and settled onto one of the counter stools while he moved around the kitchen finishing breakfast,

Sophia's POVRobert was stable by the time we left the hospital that night, awake enough to complain about the food within hours, which Ethan assured me was actually a very good sign given how much his father enjoyed complaining under ordinary circumstances. Still, the board vote Damian had threatened loomed over the following week like a storm neither of us could quite see the edges of yet, and when Ethan's assistant called about a charity auction scheduled for that Friday, something in his expression shifted immediately into careful, calculated focus."Half the board will be there," he explained, straightening his cufflinks in the mirror while I zipped up the back of a deep blue gown Della had helped me pick out that afternoon. "It's the first real chance to be seen in public since that photo made the rounds. I need us both there. Visible. Composed.""The opposite of dancing in a kitchen with flour on your face.""Exactly the opposite."I studied his reflection beside mine, some of

Ethan's POVThe boardroom felt colder than usual that Monday morning, or maybe it was just my own nerves making it feel that way, every seat around the long table filled, my father conspicuously absent, still recovering under doctor's orders, Penelope seated near the head of the table in his place with the calm, satisfied posture of a woman who believed she'd already won.Damian sat beside her, arms crossed, the same calculating smile from the auction still lingering at the edges of his expression."Let's begin," the board chair said, glancing around the table. "Given Robert's continued absence, we're here to discuss interim leadership arrangements, as outlined in the bylaws.""I'd like to propose," Penelope said smoothly, before anyone else could speak, "that given recent... distractions, the board consider a temporary restructuring. Shared oversight, perhaps, between myself and Ethan, until Robert's fully recovered.""Shared oversight," I repeated flatly. "You want a seat at the tab