All Chapters of My Ex’s Replacement Is A Hockey Billionaire: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Olivia POV"Well," Ryan said, crossing the diner with slow, deliberate steps that made every hair on my arms stand up. "Isn't this cozy."Maya's hand shot out and closed around her phone, sliding it off the table and into her lap before he got close enough to see it. Her face had gone pale as paper."Ryan, what are you doing here?" she asked, her voice shaking."Following you, obviously. You've been acting strange for weeks. Sneaking around, avoiding my calls." His eyes cut to me, and whatever charm he might have once had was long gone, replaced by something colder, meaner. "And now I find you cozied up with Olivia. Interesting. Should've known the two of you would find your way back to each other eventually. Misery loves company.""This isn't what you think," Maya said."Isn't it?" His voice rose, drawing glances from the handful of other diners scattered around the room. "I know exactly what this is. You're flipping on me. After everything I've done for you.""After everything you'v

Olivia POVThe hearing when it finally arrived two mornings later, felt almost anticlimactic after everything that had led up to it, nothing like the dramatic backdrop the last several days had prepared me to expect.Vanessa's late-night appearance at the gate two nights earlier had amounted to nothing but a screaming match through the intercom that Roman had refused to engage with, security eventually escorting her off the property while she shouted threats no one bothered writing down. Whatever she'd hoped to accomplish, it seemed to have burned itself out into exactly the kind of erratic, documented behavior that Priya assured us would only help our case.Sitting still in the gallery beside Roman, Ethan's small hand tucked into mine on my other side despite Priya's gentle suggestion that perhaps he stay home, my stomach hadn't stopped churning since we'd walked through the courthouse doors."You don't have to be here for this part," I'd told him quietly, once we were seated, watchi

Olivia POVBy the time we got home, the story had already multiplied across a dozen more sites, each one adding its own breathless speculation to the original claim. Roman sat in his study with his jaw set like granite, scrolling through headline after headline while Adrian paced behind him, phone pressed to his ear, already three calls deep into damage control."I want a statement out within the hour," Roman said, not looking up from his phone. "Categorical denial. No hedging language, nothing that gives them room to speculate further.""A flat denial invites her to produce fake evidence just to spite you," Adrian said, covering the receiver briefly. "You know how she operates. If we deny it outright, she'll manufacture something to make the denial look like a lie.""Then we get ahead of that too." Roman finally looked up, and the exhaustion in his face had hardened into something colder, more determined. "I'll request a paternity test. Publicly, if that's what it takes to shut this

Olivia POV"Absolutely not," Roman said the moment he finished reading, already dialing Priya directly instead of texting back. "She doesn't get to make a public accusation and then hide behind privacy the second she's actually held to a standard of proof."I couldn't hear Priya's side of the call, but I watched Roman's expression shift through several stages of controlled fury while he listened, his free hand braced against the terrace railing like he needed something solid to hold onto."Then we fight it," he said finally. "She made this public. She doesn't get to un-ring that bell just because the results are inconvenient." A pause. "Do it. Whatever legal pressure you can apply, apply it. I want those results public the second they exist."He ended the call and stood there a moment, jaw tight, staring back out at the water. "She's terrified," he said quietly, almost to himself. "That's the only explanation for suddenly wanting privacy after weeks of chasing every camera she could f

Olivia POV"She's not at the door anymore," I said into the phone, my voice climbing toward panic despite every effort to keep it level. "I don't know where she went.""Ma'am, lock yourself and the child in a secure room. We're two minutes out.""Two minutes." The words came out thin, disbelieving. Two minutes felt like an eternity with an unstable woman somewhere inside a house this size, and I was already moving before I'd fully processed the decision, scooping up my phone and reaching for Ethan's hand.I ended the call and turned to Ethan, forcing my voice into something calm even as my pulse hammered violently in my throat. "Hey, bud. We're going to play a quick game, okay? I need you to go to your dad's study and lock the door behind you. Can you do that for me?"He stared at me, wide-eyed, clearly reading the fear I hadn't managed to fully hide, and shook his head hard, grabbing a fistful of my sleeve instead."Ethan, please. I need you to be safe. I'll be right there, I just ne