Alle Kapitel von The Wife They Rejected Was a Billionaire Heiress: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 10

Naomi Hart came back to Crestview, California a week early, her daughter's small hand tucked in hers.Grace's fever had finally broken. The doctors said she was strong enough to go back to school. Naomi had promised herself this trip home would be a fresh start quiet, ordinary, safe.She hadn't told her husband she was coming back early. That was her first mistake.The Blackwood estate was lit up like a stage the moment her car pulled through the gates. Every window glowed gold against the dark hillside. Naomi stood in the entryway a second too long, key still in her hand, listening.A man's voice carried from the garden."Can you believe it? Ethan actually got down on one knee. We were all shocked when he and Naomi rushed off to city hall for that marriage license years back but everyone always knew who he really wanted. Chloe's finally getting her happy ending."Naomi's stomach dropped.She stepped toward the French doors and looked out.The garden had been transformed string lights

Ethan didn't think twice about any of it.Once the doctor finished writing the prescription, he gave the housekeeper a few clipped instructions, showered, and went to bed.Because Lily's health had always been fragile, Naomi spent nearly two months out of every year on Catalina Island with her, letting the sea air do what medicine couldn't. Between the island and Crestview, Naomi barely lived in that house at all a handful of dresses in a closet was the only proof she'd ever called it home.Tonight had just been an accident, as far as Ethan was concerned. If Naomi had simply explained herself properly instead of storming off, Julian never would have gotten sick in the first place.To him to both of them, really she was replaceable. If it weren't for his grandfather's insistence on keeping the marriage intact, Ethan wouldn't have cared one way or another whether they divorced at all.Naomi had no idea any of this was going through his head.She'd checked herself and Lily into a hotel f

On the ferry from Catalina Island back to the mainland. "Sebastian, what exactly are you doing out on that half-abandoned island? The Sinclairs are the ones developing it, not the Coles." The man asking had a boyish, easy face. He hooked a fish off his line, glanced at it, then tossed it straight back into the water without a second thought. Beside him stood a man who looked almost too striking to be real sharp cheekbones, a mouth that rarely moved, and a pair of lazy, hooded eyes that gave nothing away. A single dark mole sat just beneath his left eye, the kind of detail that made strangers look twice. From any distance, Sebastian Cole read as untouchable. Cold money in human form. He turned the lighter over once in his fingers, not bothering to look up. "Looking for someone." Miles let the question drop. He already knew, in the vague way everyone around Sebastian eventually learned things, that there was a woman Sebastian had been quietly obsessed with for years one nobody had

Naomi's brow creased.Grandma Blackwood had been a university professor, sharp and accomplished in her own right. And yet she still carried that same tired bias a woman, dismissing other women, without a second thought.Naomi smoothed a hand over Lily's hair, nodding firmly. "You're right, baby. Being a boy or a girl was never what decides what someone can do. Mom believes you're going to grow up and do something amazing. Grandma's just a little stuck in old ways of thinking even grown-ups get things wrong sometimes. Don't let it sit too heavy on you, okay? It's been a while since Grandpa and Grandma have seen you. I bet they miss you a lot. Let's go visit them, all right?"Lily tilted her head, considering it seriously, then nodded. "Okay.""It's late. How about a story before bed?"Naomi carried her to her room, pulled out the storybook from the night before, and read it with all the voices, all the drama Lily loved. Her daughter listened, wide-eyed, until her eyelids grew heavy and

The chubby kid wasn't giving up that easily. "You can buy Transformers anywhere. You can't buy a basket like that. Please, Lily, just ask your grandpa for me."Julian, overhearing, had no idea the "grandpa" in question was Grandpa Wade from Catalina he assumed the boy meant his own grandfather.He puffed his chest out, smug. "Grandpa doesn't even like her. Grandma says I'm the only one in this family worth anything. Lily's just a girl girls are basically a bad investment. No point begging her for anything"He didn't get to finish the sentence.Lily shoved him flat onto his back in one clean motion before he saw it coming.Months of fencing lessons had done wonders for her reflexes. Julian never stood a chance. She stood over him, arms crossed, voice cold. "Wrong. Girls aren't a bad investment. Only someone as arrogant and dumb as you would think that. Apologize.""You" Julian's face went scarlet.He wasn't about to back down, but Chloe had somewhere to be that afternoon, and the Black