Five Years On The Run: The Billionaire's Secret Baby のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 101 - チャプター 110

OliverMy mother called me at seven in the morning the day after the photos went public.Her name was Renée Ashford and her voice had the particular temperature of a woman who had seen everything in life and been surprised by nothing. Until now."Oliver," she said without preamble. "I'm looking at photographs of you kissing a woman I don't know outside her apartment building. I'm also reading articles about two children who are apparently my grandchildren. Children I knew nothing about."I held the phone away from my ear for a moment. "Good morning Mother.""Don't be flip. I'm flying in from Paris by the weekend and I would very much like to meet this woman and these grandchildren since my own son didn't find it necessary to inform me of their existence.""I was going to tell you in person.""You should have told me two years ago when the children were born. Or five years ago when the girl was born. You were waiting for what exactly?"I didn't have a good answer for that. "I'll explai

ColetteRenée went to bed early and the children were long asleep.Oliver and I ended up in the kitchen again like we always seemed to when we needed to talk about important things. The room was quiet with just the sound of him making tea and me sitting at the counter watching him move.We really discussed Owen this time. What he'd done and what it meant and the fact that he'd stolen something important from me and I'd just let him walk out without saying anything to Oliver about it.Shockingly Oliver was the one who apologized first."I'm sorry for how I acted," he said. "You're an adult and you're capable of handling things and I treated you like you needed my permission or my approval. That wasn't fair.""I'm sorry too," I said. "For not telling you. For handling it alone like I always do when I should have trusted you with it.""Why didn't you tell me?""Because Owen is one very insignificant person in my life. He was something from my past that I thought I'd moved past and I did

OliverMy mother came down at six thirty in the morning and took in the scene in the kitchen without saying anything at all.Colette and I were standing close together with coffee cups in our hands. We were moving around each other with the kind of natural ease that came from having spent the night together. From being completely comfortable in each other's presence without any self-consciousness or worry about what anyone would think.I was making toast and she was pulling out jam from the refrigerator and our movements fit together like we'd been doing this for years instead of just one night. Our shoulders brushed as we passed and neither of us moved away. Neither of us felt the need to create distance or pretend there was nothing between us.Renée looked at us both for approximately four seconds. She took in the way I looked at Colette when I thought she wasn't watching. She saw the way Colette smiled back at me with complete ease. She observed how we were together in this qui

OliverThe people behind that letter made a significant miscalculation that would ultimately prove to be their complete undoing.They assumed that six years later I would still have reasons to stay quiet about what happened to me. They assumed I would still care more about my privacy and my reputation and my desire to move forward than about ending this completely and permanently.They were very wrong about that assumption.I called my legal team at ten o'clock at night and told them to prepare for full litigation immediately. I was going after every person connected to that original scheme. Everyone who'd been directly involved and everyone who'd tried to profit from it since. Including the ones who'd managed to avoid prosecution the first time around when they'd thought they were clever enough to escape consequences.I'd been sitting on the ability to do this for years. Held back partly by wanting privacy and partly by not being ready to dredge all of it back up and relive the vi

ColetteOliver was quiet for a moment before he spoke and when he finally did his voice was measured and careful like he was choosing every word deliberately."I spent ten years making myself into someone that nothing could touch," he said. "Because the alternative was ending up vulnerable and exposed and I decided a long time ago that I didn't want that for myself."Colette watched him from across the desk and said nothing because she could feel that he needed space to get through this without being interrupted."So I built the walls," he continued. "Higher and higher until they were so solid that no one could get through them. Not business rivals, not people who wanted things from me, not even my mother at some point. She tried for years and I just kept building the walls higher every time she got close.""What changed?" Colette asked quietly."Elijah," Oliver said simply. "Elijah broke through that wall completely. He didn't give me a choice about it. He was just there one day, thi