All Chapters of The Perfect Match; Billionaire's Surrogate Mother : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Damien's point of view Louisa sat across from me in the car as we drove to my parents' house, the insanely slow traffic making the drive longer than usual. Like the universe knew exactly how much I didn't want to be there.She stayed quiet beside me, scrolling now and then through the phone I'd bought her. It beeped regularly, her face pulling into a tight frown every time she looked down at it.I had an idea who it was."Who is that?" I broke the silence. She glanced at me for a second before looking back down. "No one."Sure.She hadn't asked what I was doing on my own phone, which I was grateful for, because I didn't have a good answer ready if she had.Derick had sent over what he could find on Jude Carlton by midafternoon. It wasn't as much as I'd expected.I wouldn't lie — I'd underestimated the man. As dumb as he looked, he wasn't actually that stupid. He hadn't left the kind of paper trail I was used to hunting — no company filings, no board minutes, no email chains I could s

Louisa's point of view The rest of dinner went on with more under-the-table jabs and mean little remarks, but nothing quite as sharp as before. It felt less like a real conversation and more like they'd simply wanted to meet me in person before deciding their next move. Plan accordingly. Their plan was probably some version of finding a way to get rid of me, since I clearly didn't meet the daughter-in-law bar. Not that I planned on being anyone's daughter-in-law anyway. Damien had been on his phone through most of dessert, pointedly ignoring his father and offering the occasional grunt of acknowledgment to his mother's running commentary. "I can't wait for you to come visit again," his mother said, ushering us out. She seemed like a genuinely sweet woman with no real power of her own — and since the people who raised her weren't exactly likable themselves, she'd probably absorbed some of that same reputation by association. Damien opened the car door for me before circling ar

Louisa's point of view It had been a genuinely terrible idea to involve Damien in my business. That was the first thought that hit me the moment I opened my eyes, and the first text of the day didn't do much to change it. Jude: “Ever thought about what Damien would do once he finds out what you've done?” No. I hadn't. My idiot self never really considered Damien actually digging up the things I'd worked so hard to bury. I'd just assumed he'd help me handle Jude and then quietly let the whole thing go. "God, I'm so stupid." I dropped my face into my hands. Even now, it felt like Damien had forgotten the whole situation existed. He hadn't brought it up once since that night in the car, two days ago. I was cooked. Genuinely. Jude sent another message right after. It took a certain kind of dedication to spam someone the way he did — there wasn't a morning or night that went by without something from him waiting on my screen. He was getting harder to ignore. A ticking clock, an

Louisa's point of view I hadn't even been at this party two hours and my phone was already overheating from messages. Is everyone just sitting online, waiting for the next headline? I ignored most of them, made a mental note to answer later, and opened my old college group chat instead. I never really liked college. Nobody there particularly liked me either, and I hadn't exactly made it easy for them to. I kept to myself. Just as I expected — they were talking about me and Damien. Probably the longest I'd ever occupied space in their heads. Made me wonder if some of them were jealous. Wished they were me. Wished we'd gotten along better, back then. A separate message came in — Grace, someone I'd run into at the supermarket once, and easily my biggest defender in that group chat, since she'd actually seen Damien and me together in person, even if she hadn't put it all together at the time. She reminded me about a get-together next week. Said to bring Damien. Would he

Louisa's point of view I hadn't been to see Mom in a while, which was so unlike me. She had just recovered, gone through surgery. Now was the time I should have been by her side, staying with her, but instead I was sleeping with the man I should just be working for.Thinking of Damien just made me a bit wetter again. I was turning into a sex addict.Knocking on the door since I couldn't find my key anymore, I mentally prepared for what I would find behind it.For the first time, I wasn't sure how my mother or sister were going to react.I hadn't been home in days, hadn't called or spoken to them much, and they were finding pictures of me in a relationship with some celebrity on the internet.It wasn't the most award-winning daughter behavior.Michelle opened the door, eyeing me for a second before rolling her eyes."Good morning," I offered, but she just walked away.The house was in terrible shape — litters of takeout containers and packets of whatever just lying about. Of course s