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Home / Romance / The CEO Betrayed His Wife—Now He Wants Her Back / Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 7

Lahat ng Kabanata ng The CEO Betrayed His Wife—Now He Wants Her Back: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 7

7 Kabanata

1. The Borrowed Endorsement

Julian Cross put his hand on Vivian Shaw's bare back and told his wife to smile.Tessa stopped two steps short of them. "Take your hand off her."He looked down, surprised, as though he hadn't noticed where he'd put it. Vivian wore a sapphire dress with a low back, and she made no move to step away."Tess. There are cameras.""I can see them."Julian withdrew his hand. His expression changed from surprise to warning. Tessa knew that look. It meant they would discuss her behavior later, after he had decided which parts deserved an answer."Tonight matters," he said quietly."Then don't make me watch you arrive with another woman.""I arrived with the person who got our investors into this room. You were supposed to come down with me.""I was upstairs because you told me to wait."Vivian reached for Julian's sleeve. "They're asking for us."Us. Six years of marriage, and that word still managed to find Tessa in the wrong place.Julian glanced toward the ballroom. "Can we have one evenin

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

2. Payday Faces

Julian had seen Tessa cry only twice in front of strangers. Tonight she hadn't cried. Somehow that felt worse."You never had my consent."Her voice was still ringing through the ballroom when he reached the microphone. A hundred faces waited for him to call his wife mistaken. He could have told the room they would resolve it privately. He could have asked Tessa to step down.Instead he said, "My wife and I disagree about the timing."Tessa stared at him. "You still won't tell them.""I won't turn a financing announcement into a marital argument.""You already did. You put our wedding photograph behind you and made a stranger speak for me."Vivian moved toward the microphone. Julian gave her a look that meant wait. He disliked being cornered, especially by the one person who knew how much he needed the room to believe in him."Tess," he said, "we're leaving the stage.""Tell them whether I signed anything."He held out his hand. "Please."It was a hand she used to take without looking

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

3. Two Notices

Tessa woke reaching for the other side of a bed that was no longer hers.She was in the work apartment, fully dressed beneath a borrowed blanket. For one confused second she expected Julian to come through the door carrying coffee and asking why she'd slept without him. Then she remembered the ballroom. The microphone. His face when he'd called her betrayal an inconvenience to the business.She looked at the wedding ring she'd left beside Naomi's list of lost shifts. In six years she'd learned the names of his executives, his friends and the people who depended on their hotels. Somehow she had become the one person Julian didn't feel obliged to consult.Her phone vibrated.Julian: We need to get the financing sorted first. Please don't turn the marriage into another negotiation.She read it twice. He still believed she was making the marriage difficult rather than admitting what he'd done to it.When Tessa called her divorce attorney, she still had Julian’s last message open on her sc

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

4. The First Hotel

Julian had called Tessa twice since opening the divorce petition. She hadn't answered either call. He drove to their first hotel anyway, because he could not imagine that six years of marriage could end without his wife hearing him explain.The petition said their marriage was irretrievably broken. He had read the phrase three times and still couldn't make it sound like Tessa. The other envelope contained her objection to the protected sale. She had turned the gala into two legal fights, and he was furious that she could act so certain while he was still waiting for her to come home.They had to inventory their first hotel together. Julian could have sent someone else to carry the files, but Helen required both names on the record. He came because Tessa had agreed to be there—and because it was the only hour of her life she had not refused him.Vivian texted: Dinner with the lenders is still on. We can manage this. Julian turned the phone facedown. He knew Tessa would take the message

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

5. The Written Warning

Julian was still wearing his wedding ring. Tessa watched it turn beneath his thumb while he sat across from her at the hearing, expecting her to protect him from the consequences of his own choice. On the table lay Nora Chen’s unanswered warning and the photograph of their first hotel. His arm encircled her waist in the picture. Six years later he would not even look at her unless somebody else was listening."Did you read my warning before the sale announcement?" Nora asked."Yes," Julian answered. "We were facing a financing deadline.""I warned that protected rights and shifts could disappear.""I know what the report said."Tessa remembered ironing that shirt for his birthday, before she stopped being invited into the decisions he made. “Then why use my name?”Julian met her eyes. "Because you would have stopped the deal before I could save the hotels."He sounded as if the answer should end the argument. Tessa almost wished he'd lied again. This was worse: he was telling her plai

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

6. The Only No

“No.”Tessa said it while Julian’s hand was still held open across the table. For one heartbeat it felt as if she had refused the man she once ran toward rather than a piece of paper. Her fingers shook in her lap. She looked at his initials on the draft that would blame her for withholding consent and did not reach for him.Julian looked at her as though she'd struck him. Gideon pushed his chair back. Mateo closed his eyes."For the record," Helen said carefully, "you withhold consent to this transfer?"“Yes. I will not sign away the workers’ protections, and I will not pretend I approved a decision Julian made without me.”Helen signed the suspension notice. Across the room Naomi turned her phone so the workers could read the confirmation: COVERED TRANSFER ON HOLD."Does that mean I get my Saturday shift back?" Mateo asked.Tessa looked at him. "Not automatically. I'm sorry. I stopped this sale. I didn't solve the missing money."Mateo nodded without looking relieved. He checked his

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

7. Twenty-One Days

Julian entered the cash review and found Naomi sitting beside Tessa.He stopped at the doorway. She had not answered his message about the divorce papers. The empty chair was at the far end of the table, not beside his wife. Once Tessa would have moved her papers without looking up, making space for his coffee, his coat, his hand beneath the table. She didn't even turn her head.He sat where they had left a place for him."The worker delegates have questions about the next payroll," Tessa said. She spoke to him as she might have spoken to an outside consultant. Julian had imagined she'd shout again. He hadn't imagined the sound of her no longer belonging to him.Callum, still wearing his night-shift jacket, asked when his hours would come back. "My daughter has started writing down the evenings she thinks I'll be home," he said. "I don't know what to tell her."Daniel opened a presentation. Julian could almost hear Tessa asking him to put the screen away and look at the people in fron

Huling Na-update : 2026-10-20

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