All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Wife Does Not Exist: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

For a few seconds, I couldn't understand why Roman's mother would care where he slept while I was away. Then the shape of it became obvious. She wasn't trying to keep her son from becoming Chairman. She was offering him everything he'd once wanted, provided being my husband never inconvenienced Ashbourne again.Roman was already reaching for his phone, jaw set, ready to call her."Don't.""Tessa, she—""I know what she did. I'm asking you not to fight your mother for me."He argued that this was different, that she'd deliberately shaped the terms of his Chairmanship to force a choice he'd already made clear he didn't want to make."If she hadn't done this," I asked, "what would you want?"That stopped him. Not what his mother wanted. Not what Ashbourne expected. Not what would prove his love to me. What did he actually want his life to look like."I want the Chair," he said slowly. "And I want to spend part of the year living with my wife.""Then negotiate for that. Don't reject it ju

For one embarrassing second, I wanted Roman to tell the board no. Not because I wanted him to lose the Chair, and not because I believed my first night in a new apartment mattered more than the position he'd spent years working toward. I simply wanted my husband beside me, and after everything his mother had said that afternoon, I was tired of pretending the unreasonable parts of love weren't real simply because I'd learned how to communicate better.He was already searching for ways to change the date when I caught myself."I want you to come," I told him.He looked at me."I know what the ceremony means to you. I still want you there.""I want to be there," he said. Then, just as honestly, "I want the Chair too."No villain in it. No manipulation. Just two important things happening on the same night."Do you want me to turn it down?" he asked.I thought about it before answering. "No." Then, "But I'm still allowed to be disappointed.""Very."Something almost relieving passed betwe

Roman's suitcase was still open on the floor, his toothbrush already sitting beside mine in the bathroom, and neither of us had unpacked more than a fraction of what we'd brought before the document pulled our attention away from everything else. We sat together on the edge of my bed, reading it a third time, as if the words might rearrange themselves into something we understood.I genuinely could not remember signing it. Roman couldn't either.The clause was straightforward enough once we found it. An old Ashbourne spousal governance declaration, apparently signed during our first year of marriage, stating that if Roman ever became Chairman while married to me, certain assets and voting interests connected to our marriage would become subject to an independent conflict review."Why would they need your signature at all?" Roman asked, frowning at the screen. "You had no Ashbourne interest back then.""I was hoping you knew.""I've never seen this."I studied his face, and I believed

Roman's charger was tangled beside my bed, his toothbrush leaning against mine, his watch sitting on the nightstand like it belonged there. I sat watching him fold shirts into his suitcase, aware of how much of him had already settled into a space I'd deliberately built to be entirely my own. Only days ago, that had mattered to me more than almost anything. Now I mostly just liked the evidence of him.I found myself inventing reasons he didn't need to leave so early."You're looking at me like you're considering hiding my passport," he said.I denied it."I considered hiding your shoes."He laughed, and the sound of it made the coming separation ache a little more instead of less.He had a Chairman meeting that afternoon, and I wasn't going to ask him to cancel it. I'd spent too many chapters of my own life insisting love shouldn't require him to keep sacrificing himself. But I also refused to smile and pretend I was fine."Do you want me to stay?" he finally asked."Yes." I let that

The door hadn't even fully closed before I kissed him, whatever restraint we'd managed at the collection gone completely. He dropped the food and his bag somewhere inconvenient, and neither of us cared."I thought you brought me home for dinner," he murmured."You were misinformed."This was different from the reconciliation months, different from the careful, grateful hunger of relearning each other. This was just want, plain and certain, no fear tangled into it anymore. He still paused for half a second, some old habit of checking before taking anything for granted, and I pulled him closer before he could finish the thought.He knew exactly how I liked to be touched. I knew exactly which look meant he was pretending to be more patient than he felt. He said something smug against my ear and I told him to stop talking, and he laughed at entirely the wrong moment, and I kissed him again just to make him quiet."I missed my wife," he said at one point, quieter now."You had her on video