All Chapters of Too Late, Mr Billionaire : Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

The cinema smelled of buttered popcorn and old carpet, and Toria had never loved a place so much.For the first time in eighteen months, she wasn’t waiting for someone to tell her what to do.She watched three films back-to-back. A comedy where she laughed too loudly, a thriller whose ending she barely remembered, and a romance where a man chased a woman through an airport in the rain, begging her not to leave.Toria sat in the darkness with her hands pressed against her mouth, crying so quietly that the stranger beside her politely pretended not to notice.She envied that woman on the screen.Not because someone was chasing her, but because someone was afraid of losing her.No one asked where she’d been. No one needed her to be a daughter, a wife, a vessel, or a promise kept.She ate chips for lunch and ice cream for dinner. She walked along the harbour wall with her shoes in her hand, letting the cold wind scatter her hair.For a few precious hours, she forgot about the expensive ho

The screen went dark in Toria's hand.Four digits stood between her and the truth. She tried his birthday. Wrong. She tried hers. Wrong, of course. Why would he ever use hers?The shop bell chimed.Chriss filled the kitchen doorway, breathing hard. He crossed the room in three strides and took the phone from her fingers. He didn't look at it. He looked at her."What did you read?""Enough." Her voice shook. "Told me what?"A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Not here.""Then where?""Not tonight." He pocketed the phone. For one second he looked almost afraid. "Please, Toria."Please. He had never said it before. It frightened her more than any threat.She slept in the guest room that night, with the door locked.She woke in the wrong bed.Cream sheets. Their bedroom. Chriss's side was empty, but the pillow still held the dent of his head, and the sheets were warm. She was still in yesterday's dress. He had moved her in the night and slept beside her. He hadn't touched her.She sat up and the

For three months, she kept her distance.She had told him the morning after the test, in four flat words across the breakfast table. I'm pregnantDon't touch me. He had gone white, then silent, then had said nothing at all. Since then, he had changed. Slowly Oddly Like a man learning to walk on ice.Notes appeared on the fridge. Ate? C. Messages in the middle of the day: How are you feeling? One evening she found a fresh bottle of prenatal vitamins on the bathroom shelf. She'd mentioned running low exactly once, in passing, over a week before.He remembered. It unnerved her.One Thursday she came downstairs and found him in the kitchen. Not at work. In jeans, with his sleeves rolled up, a frying pan in his hand."It's ten o'clock," Toria said. "Why are you home?""I took the day off.""You've never taken a day off.""I know." He cracked an egg with grim concentration. "I want to know what your days are like. Sit."She sat, mostly out of shock.He put a plate in front of her. The eggs w