Todos los capítulos de THE BILLIONAIRE’S EX-WIFE BECAME HIS GREATEST RIVAL: Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 80

I knew the contract was dangerous the moment I saw the name of the company attached to it.Not Blackwood itself — a respected, established company that had discovered Sterling through the recent industry coverage and wanted us to compete for a major strategic consulting contract. Considerably larger than anything we'd handled before. Not enough to make Sterling suddenly wealthy, but large enough that winning it would strengthen us significantly, and losing it would sting in a way our earlier setback never had.This wasn't simply another client. This could determine whether Sterling moved from *promising young firm* to something people took seriously.I refused to let myself get excited before I understood the company properly. We spent hours studying their position, their competitors, the market shifts around them, their previous strategy attempts, their customer retention, their operational weaknesses, where their growth had quietly stalled."We should focus on what Sterling can offe

The first thing I saw when I walked into the conference room was Adrian.Not my ex-husband. Not the man I had once waited for at home.The CEO representing Blackwood Corporation.I paused for only a moment. I didn’t turn around, didn’t consider leaving. *I am here for Sterling,* I reminded myself, and walked in with Maya and Leo beside me.The room was arranged the way these rooms always were — Blackwood executives on one side, the client’s representatives at the head of the table, Sterling’s smaller team settling across from them. Once, I would have automatically stood beside Adrian in a room like this. Today I sat opposite him. I didn’t dwell on the difference. I opened my folder instead.Our eyes met briefly across the table. No dramatic staring, nothing exaggerated. I gave a small, professional nod. “Good morning.”“Good morning, Elena,” he said.Hearing my first name from him in that room felt different than I expected — not wife, not Mrs. Blackwood. Simply Elena. I turned my att

The thing that unsettled me most about Elena wasn’t that she had changed. It was that she no longer seemed to need me to notice.I kept returning to the negotiation the night before — not her appearance, not our marriage, not anything to do with Vivienne. Just how calmly she’d handled the entire session. She hadn’t looked to me for approval once. She hadn’t become defensive when I challenged her. When I told her she’d negotiated well, she’d given me exactly what she would have given any other competitor.*So did you.*Nothing more than that. It bothered me more than I expected.Back at Blackwood that evening, the team worked through the client’s newly discovered risk — financial exposure, implementation delays, whether we needed to modify our proposal entirely. I listened, but my mind kept drifting back to Elena’s approach in that room. She hadn’t negotiated emotionally. She hadn’t tried to beat Blackwood simply because I was sitting across from her.She had negotiated because she gen

The email arrived at 8:03 a.m., and I knew we had lost before I opened it.The client’s message was formal, professional, entirely without insult. Sterling Consulting had been selected for the contract. Blackwood was thanked for its participation. No suggestion that we had performed badly, no explanation that softened the outcome into something easier to dismiss.Simply: Sterling was judged the better fit for the client’s current needs.I read it twice. I wasn’t shocked that Sterling had been competitive — I’d known that for weeks now. What affected me was the specific language the client used to explain the decision. Sterling’s flexibility. Its customized approach. A realistic implementation structure. Direct leadership involvement. A willingness to challenge its own assumptions rather than defend them reflexively. The ability to adapt without overpromising.I recognized every one of those qualities from watching Elena across the negotiation table myself. I didn’t feel cheated. I kne

Elena's POVI knew Sterling had changed when people stopped asking who we were and started asking what we were planning to do next.Maya had a list waiting for me that first morning — new inquiries, potential clients, industry requests, an interview invitation, even a partnership approach. Leo mentioned our website traffic had climbed noticeably overnight. The contract had given us credibility we hadn’t carried a week earlier.“One contract doesn’t make us established,” I reminded everyone, before the excitement could run too far ahead of itself. The real test was still ahead of us — actually delivering the work.We settled into the new engagement carefully. Maya took coordination, scheduling, client communication. Leo handled research and market analysis. I kept strategic direction and the major client conversations for myself. I considered, briefly, whether Sterling needed another hire, but didn’t rush the decision simply because opportunity was suddenly more plentiful.Daniel calle