Todos los capítulos de Five Years On The Run: The Billionaire's Secret Baby: Capítulo 91 - Capítulo 100

OliverLeon knocked on my office door at the end of a long day and sat down across from me without waiting for an invitation."Talk," he said.I looked up from the contract I was reviewing. "About what?""Don't play dumb. You know exactly what I want to talk about.""There's nothing to talk about.""There's plenty to talk about and you're going to tell me all of it because I've been your friend for too long to let you avoid this conversation."I set down my pen and leaned back in my chair. "I'm confused about what you want me to say."Leon crossed his arms. "I've watched you run billion dollar negotiations without blinking. I've seen you handle hostile board members and aggressive competitors and corporate crises that would have destroyed lesser men. You never flinch and you never hesitate.""Your point?""My point is that the same man who can do all of that has now rescheduled two investor calls in one week because they overlapped with personal calls that ran long."I felt my jaw tig

ColetteI woke up to myself trending the next morning.My head was pounding with a migraine from the wine I'd had at the exhibition and from staying out late with Oliver. I reached for my phone on the nightstand and saw dozens of notifications flooding my screen.Messages from Maya. Texts from Priya and Holt. Missed calls from numbers I didn't recognize. And when I opened social media I understood why.A photographer from the event had taken a candid photo of Oliver and me standing in front of that installation about duality. The one we'd both been drawn to and had stood in front of for so long. In the photo we were close together, our shoulders almost touching, both of us looking at the art with expressions that were soft and unguarded.The headline was crazy. "Oliver Ashford and Mystery Woman Share Intimate Moment at Private Exhibition."My face wasn't fully visible in the first photo because I'd been turned slightly toward the artwork. But it was clear enough that anyone who knew

OliverI invited Colette and Lea over for dinner that evening.It had become a regular occurrence now, natural enough that the children took it for granted and saw it as completely normal. They didn't question why we all ate together or why Colette and Lea were at my house so often. They just accepted it as the way things were.Dinner was chaotic in the best way. Elijah and Lea talked over each other telling stories about their day at school. Lea was excited about the painting she'd made and wanted to show it to me tomorrow. Elijah had learned something new in science class and was explaining it with the seriousness of a college professor.Colette and I sat across from each other and passed dishes and made appropriate comments and caught each other's eyes occasionally with small smiles that the children didn't notice.After dinner the twins insisted on watching a movie in the living room. We set them up with blankets and pillows and put on something animated that they'd both seen a d

aColetteI was done being passive.I'd spent enough years reacting to things. Reacting to Owen's betrayal. Reacting to Oliver's family taking Elijah. Reacting to Vivian's schemes and the embezzlement accusations and the reporters outside my building.I was tired of waiting for things to happen to me and then figuring out how to survive them. This time I was going to walk straight at the problem and deal with it directly instead of waiting until it had already done damage I couldn't undo.So I called Oliver and asked if we could meet without the children.He agreed but I could sense wariness in his voice even through the phone. He was careful with his words in a way he hadn't been a week ago and it confirmed what I already knew. Something had shifted and he was pulling back and pretending he wasn't.We met at a place that was private enough that we wouldn't be photographed but neutral enough that neither of us had home advantage. A quiet café at the back of a hotel that wasn't Harbo

ColetteOliver told me nothing about what he'd planned except what time he'd pick me up.I asked three times and he deflected every time with a calm smile that told me nothing was coming out of him no matter how many angles I tried. So I dressed comfortably like he'd suggested and got in his car at nine on Saturday morning and decided to just let the day happen.The first stop genuinely surprised me.He pulled up in front of a small building in an arts district I'd never been to and when I saw the sign through the window I turned to look at him."A pottery studio?""Private studio. Booked for the morning."I stared at him. "How did you know I wanted to do this?""You mentioned it at the exhibition. You were looking at a piece near the duality installation and you said you'd wanted to learn since you were twelve."I had said that. Quietly and in passing and without any expectation that anyone was listening. I'd been talking almost to myself and then moved on without thinking about it