All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

"When you said you know," I said, still staring at the document, "you meant you know I didn't sign this?""Yes. I've never seen that document before."I looked closer at the signature, and the unease sharpened into something worse. It wasn't a vague resemblance. It was good. The exact shape of my letters, the pressure I always put on the downstroke, the way I left the last letter of my name slightly unfinished."Someone didn't copy my name," I said."No.""They copied me."The lawyer, still on speaker, explained plainly that the document wouldn't automatically invalidate the marriage, but it was being submitted as evidence to support the board's fraud allegation. It claimed that three days before our wedding, I had acknowledged the ceremony was private and symbolic, creating no legal claim on Ashbourne assets. It even carried what looked like a legitimate witness signature.That made it worse. Someone hadn't just forged my name. They'd built a convincing document around it."I did sig

I looked at Roman. "I want to hear it from you."He asked his father to leave."There's no time," his father said. "The board meets in the morning.""Then you can wait outside."His father left. Roman and I were alone."They showed me papers with your signature on them," he said. "Claims against the studio. Enough to freeze your accounts and drag your name through court before you even understood what was happening."I stared at him. "And you believed them?""I believed they could do it."That distinction hurt more than the threat itself."They told me if I acknowledged you that night, everything would be released before morning. Your studio. Your reputation. Every document they'd prepared.""And if you denied me?"His voice dropped. "You walked away untouched."That was why he'd said it. *I have never met this woman.*"So you let me walk away believing my husband was ashamed of me.""Yes.""Why didn't you trust me enough to let me choose what I was willing to lose?"He had no defense

"Then that's Roman's decision," I told Camille.She wasn't expecting that. "You don't understand what's at stake. If the board removes him, he loses everything his family spent generations building.""I understand exactly what you're suggesting.""Do you?""You think I should leave before he has to lose something for choosing me."She didn't deny it. "I'm trying to be practical."I saw the irony immediately. For years, Roman had justified deciding things for me because he thought he knew what would protect me. Now Camille was inviting me to do exactly the same thing to him.I'd spent weeks demanding that Roman stop deciding what I could survive. I wasn't going to turn around and decide what he was allowed to sacrifice."If Roman decides Ashbourne matters more than this marriage," I said, "he'll tell me himself.""And if he doesn't?""Then I'm not leaving a man I still love because you think losing me would be better for him."I heard myself say it and felt the weight of it land before

"What do you mean, not the one we had before?""During the second year," he said, "I stopped asking myself how to get you back and started asking a harder question. If you did come back, why would you want the marriage you left?""We weren't unhappy, Roman.""I know we weren't." He said it without hesitation. "That's not what I mean. We had love. What we didn't have was me knowing the difference between taking care of you and deciding things for you."I thought about it, and the examples came easily once I let myself look for them. The car he'd arranged after mine broke down, before I'd said a word about wanting one. The studio problem he'd solved with a phone call before I'd even decided how I wanted to handle it myself. Appointments moved around his schedule because his time always seemed to matter more, quietly, without either of us ever saying so out loud."Sometimes I liked it," I admitted. "Sometimes I depended on it.""I know. That's what made it easy for me not to notice when

I kept reading.*I miss you leaving your tools where they don't belong. I miss you correcting me when I pretend to understand something about your work, which we both know I never fully do. I miss your side of the bathroom counter being crowded with things I never learned the names of. I miss coming home to a house where someone inside knew Roman, not just Roman Ashbourne.**For months I kept your side of the closet exactly as you left it. I told myself it was love. Eventually I understood it was closer to refusing to accept what I'd done.**I used to think being a good husband meant making your life easier. I only understood after losing you that what you actually gave me was something I never repaid properly. You gave me somewhere I didn't have to be an Ashbourne.**I never thought I could lose you, Tess. I think that was part of the problem. I loved you like someone who believed tomorrow with you had already been guaranteed. The ballroom taught me the ugliest version of that lesson