All Chapters of The Wife They Rejected Was a Billionaire Heiress: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Naomi set the contract on the front desk and turned to leave.Watching her go, the receptionist pulled out her phone, snapped a photo, and hesitated over whether to forward it to Chloe.Back at the school, Chloe was still holding her breath, watching Dr. Holloway examine the Newton's cradle.After a long silence, he sat back, something newly thoughtful in his expression as he looked at Julian.A kid under ten built this?The metal spheres hung suspended with near-surgical precision, spaced along the line with impossible consistency. The materials had clearly been chosen to minimize friction and air resistance, and even the surface finish on the spheres looked professionally treated.This isn't a school project. This is engineering."Did you build this on your own?" Dr. Holloway asked, something like genuine respect creeping into his voice.Julian opened his mouth to answer. Chloe cut him off before he could, worried he'd fumble the story. "Every bit of it, all on his own. We were floo

Watching Julian just standing there, Ethan bit out two words. "Apologize."Julian's eyes went wide.He hadn't expected his own father to actually make him apologize to Naomi, of all people."I'm not wrong! I'm not apologizing!" He stomped his foot and bolted for Ethan's car.Chloe hurried after him.Naomi watched the whole thing unfold with total detachment, nothing stirring in her chest at all.That blankness rattled Ethan more than anything Julian had said.Has she really given up on both of us completely?"Julian, he""No need to explain," Naomi cut him off before he could finish.She'd been mildly surprised Ethan had actually sided with her for once, scolding his own son on her behalf.Shame it's a little too late for that to matter. Julian's already too far gone.Ethan swallowed the rest of what he'd been about to say and pivoted instead, working up to the divorce.It hadn't even been a full month. There was still time to walk it back.Before he could get anything out, a small fi

Something flickered across Derek's face at the request.He scrambled for a polite way to shut it down.Before he could get a word out, Vivian had already lifted the box straight out of his hands, smiling playfully. "Don't be stingy, big brother. I just want a peek."She turned to Naomi. "Sis, you don't mind, right? I just want to see what you picked."Naomi didn't answer right away, just watched her, something unreadable in her eyes.The gift's already out of my hands. Why bother asking me now?Nobody else in the room seemed to register anything strange about the whole exchange if anything, Vivian's little intrusion read as playful, harmless, exactly the kind of thing a doted-on younger sister could get away with.Since no one stepped in to stop her, Naomi wasn't about to be the one to make it awkward. "Go ahead."Derek turned his face away, unable to watch.Vivian pulled the lid off, practically glowing with anticipation.The second she saw what was inside, her smile froze solid.So

"Not happening."Ethan's voice went cold, his grip tightening around Naomi's fingers. "How long are you planning to keep this up, Naomi? Love, love, love is that seriously the only thing that matters to you?""What happens to Julian and Lily after this divorce goes through? You're fine with them growing up split apart?"Naomi stared at him and, unexpectedly, smiled.She'd never been the type to treat love as the whole point of a life.But somewhere along the way, in her years married to Ethan, she'd built her entire world around this family anyway.And what had that gotten her? A front-row seat to Ethan and Julian proposing to another woman."Ethan, I'm exhausted." She wasn't interested in dragging this out. "Julian adores Chloe. He'll be happier without me in the picture. He's wanted her as his mom this whole time, hasn't he? Well now he's got what he wanted. And so have you.""Got what, exactly?"Ethan tried to press further. Naomi shook her wrist free before he could finish.She st

"Naomi how did you know Grandpa was here for his lungs?"Almost nobody knew about his condition.So how does she?"Marcus mentioned a while back that Grandpa hadn't been well." Naomi's answer came smooth, quick on her feet. "And last night at dinner, I noticed him getting short of breath and coughing a bit. Figured it might be some kind of lung inflammation."The explanation was airtight. Nathan couldn't find a single thread to pull on."So Marcus said something." He turned it over, thoughtful.His curiosity about Naomi only deepened.A vague comment and a little observation, and she landed on lung inflammation without missing a beat.She's sharper than I gave her credit for."That kid never leaves me anything to be mysterious about," their grandfather grumbled, though the annoyance didn't quite reach his eyes.Naomi glanced around the busy lobby. "Nathan, why don't you get Grandpa upstairs for his workup."Nathan nodded and guided the old man toward the elevators.Naomi headed off to