All Chapters of My Ex’s Replacement Is A Hockey Billionaire: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Olivia POVI didn't answer the text. I sat there staring at it until the screen dimmed on its own, then I deleted the message entirely, like erasing it from my phone might erase it from my chest too. It didn't. It just meant I lay there in the dark with the words memorized instead of visible, which was somehow worse — no evidence to point to, just the sentence looping over and over until I finally gave up trying to sleep through it and stared at the ceiling instead, counting the hours until it would be socially acceptable to get up.By morning I'd decided the only thing to do was act like it hadn't happened at all. I splashed cold water on my face until the puffiness under my eyes went down enough to pass for tired-but-fine, and went down to the kitchen where Mrs. Doyle already had eggs going and Ethan was sitting at the counter in mismatched pajamas, sketchbook open beside his plate like it never left his side, not even for breakfast."Morning," I said, sliding onto the stool next to

Olivia POVRoman didn't dignify that with an answer. He said something low and sharp to the security guard who'd finally caught up behind her, and within a minute Vanessa was being escorted, still smiling that razor-thin smile, back out through the door she'd walked through like she owned it.The silence after she left was almost worse than the noise had been.Ethan hadn't moved from my side. When I finally looked down at him properly, his whole body was shaking, silent tears streaming down his face, one hand still fisted so tight in my sleeve that the fabric had gone damp with sweat."Hey," I said softly, crouching down to his level. "Hey, it's over. She's gone."He shook his head hard, like gone wasn't a concept he trusted anymore, and pressed his face into my shoulder instead of answering. I held him there on the cold marble floor of that enormous entryway, rocking slightly, the way my mother used to do for Emma when she was small and the nightmares got bad, and I didn't try to rus

Olivia POVWe didn't have long to wait.Two days later, Roman had a public appearance already scheduled — a charity gala the Callahan Group sponsored every year, black tie, half the city's press corps expected to be there covering it. Adrian tried, gently, to suggest Roman skip it given everything happening with Vanessa, and Roman refused just as gently, insisting that skipping it would look exactly like the kind of guilty retreat Vanessa wanted the headlines to describe."You should come," Roman said to me, two nights before the event, in a tone that made it clear it wasn't really a question. "Ethan does better with a familiar face there. And frankly, I'd like you there too."I told myself the second reason didn't make my chest go warm and stupid. I was lying to myself and I knew it."I don't own anything appropriate for a gala," I pointed out. "Unless you count the black dress I wore to my grandmother's funeral, which I doubt is the vibe you're going for.""I'll have something sent

Olivia POVFour days felt like nothing at all once we were sitting in Roman's study the next morning with a lawyer named Priya Anand spreading documents across the desk like a general laying out battle plans."The timeline is aggressive, which tells me she has help pushing it through," Priya said, flipping through the petition with a practiced, unbothered efficiency that made me want to hug her out of sheer gratitude. "But aggressive isn't the same as strong. Her filing leans heavily on unverified tabloid claims and character assumptions. That's thin ground if we can get in front of the right judge with solid counter-evidence.""What counts as counter-evidence?" I asked."Character witnesses. Documentation of the household environment. Ethan's therapist, ideally, speaking to his progress since Miss Carter's arrival." Priya's eyes flicked to me, assessing in a way that felt clinical rather than cruel. "And you, frankly. Cleared of the fraud accusation, employed, cooperative, no history

Olivia POVMs. Ferris's expression shifted instantly into something more guarded, professional interest sharpening at the sight of the two opposing parties suddenly standing in the same entryway."Ms. Sinclair, this visit was scheduled as part of the standard evaluation. It's not typically standard practice to have the petitioner present for the respondent's assessment.""I understand completely," Vanessa said, somehow managing to sound both apologetic and entirely unwilling to leave at the same time. "I only wanted to see my son. Surely that's not so unreasonable, given how long I've been kept from him.""Kept from him," Roman repeated, incredulous. "You had four years of unrestricted access and chose not to use a single day of it. Don't stand in my house and rewrite that history in front of a court official.""That's a conversation for right now." Vanessa's eyes flicked to Ms. Ferris, performing wounded restraint for an audience of exactly one. "I only came because I heard about the