THE BILLIONAIRE’S EX-WIFE BECAME HIS GREATEST RIVAL のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

I could have walked away after Adrian told me he didn’t know.Instead, I decided to give him one more reason to remember why we had once chosen each other.I spent the morning turning it over — the two paths sitting in front of me, one where I quietly began preparing myself for an ending, the other where I gave this marriage one honest, undramatic attempt before deciding whether it was truly beyond repair. I chose the second, not because I was desperate, and not because I wanted to compete with anyone. I chose it because I still had a question of my own I hadn’t fully answered yet: was there still something here worth fighting for?I didn’t plan anything extravagant. No reservation at some restaurant designed to impress, no elaborate surprise. I wanted something simple — dinner at home, the kind we used to have in our first year together, before either of us had learned to disappear so completely into our own schedules. I remembered those early dinners clearly: Adrian telling me about

I woke up on my birthday expecting nothing, which should have made it impossible for disappointment to find me.I was wrong.Adrian stirred beside me not long after, and our morning unfolded the way most of our mornings did — he checked his phone, mentioned the partnership review, confirmed again that tomorrow’s dinner was still on. He didn’t mention my birthday. I made coffee, asked what time he’d be home, gave him every ordinary opening a person could give without simply announcing the date myself. Nothing.He kissed me goodbye eventually, said, “I’ll see you tonight,” the same way he said it most mornings, and left.*Maybe he’s planning something,* I told myself, watching the door close. Adrian wasn’t naturally sentimental — I’d learned that years ago, and mostly made my peace with it. Maybe there was a dinner reservation waiting somewhere, a gift tucked away, some quiet plan he was holding until later. I didn’t search for evidence. I didn’t ask. I simply let the day continue and g

The folder Adrian had found was still on my desk the next morning.I had expected it to make me nostalgic. Instead, it made me angry. Not at Adrian. At myself. Because somewhere between becoming his wife and becoming the person everyone expected me to be, I had allowed a version of myself I once cared about to become something I could barely recognize.I read through the old document slowly, over coffee, some of the ideas outdated now, the underlying thinking still unmistakably mine. I remembered why I’d loved this work in the first place — not the ambition of becoming some future CEO, but the specific, private satisfaction of finding the pattern hidden inside a mess of numbers, understanding why one business thrived while a nearly identical one failed, turning something complicated into something clear. I hadn’t lost the ability to do that. I had simply stopped giving it any room.*Maybe I didn’t lose that woman,* I wrote in my notebook. *Maybe I just stopped giving her room.*I met

The announcement Adrian had mentioned over breakfast was already waiting for me when I walked into the Blackwood conference room.The presentation screen carried two names.**Blackwood Corporation.****Laurent International.**I stopped for half a second before taking my seat.The room filled quickly with board members and executives, the atmosphere formal in the particular way that meant something significant had already been decided and this meeting existed mainly to confirm it. Adrian entered first, composed, entirely in CEO mode. Vivienne arrived shortly after, equally composed, taking her seat near the head of the table as though she’d always belonged there.A board member opened by explaining that after reviewing the partnership proposal, Blackwood had decided to move into the next phase. I expected the discussion to center on the project itself — timelines, budgets, the practical architecture of the expansion.Instead, Adrian announced that he and Vivienne would personally lead

“Yes,” Adrian said again, waiting.I didn’t answer right away. If I simply told him what he should have done differently at the event — introduced me by name, mentioned the strategy review, stood a little closer to me for the cameras — we would only be solving the surface of something much deeper. The photograph hadn’t been the real issue. The announcement hadn’t been the real issue. Even Vivienne, as much as she’d occupied my thoughts for weeks now, wasn’t the entire issue.“If you had introduced me differently tonight,” I said slowly, “maybe it would have hurt less. But it wouldn’t have changed what I was feeling.”“What were you feeling?” he asked.I told him about watching him beside Vivienne — the ease, the shared history, the way he listened to her without needing to be asked twice. And then I said the part I’d been circling for weeks without letting myself land on it directly.“It made me wonder whether you ever chose me the way you chose her.”He went still.“I’m not asking wh