Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 23

Chapter 21: Couple Fight

Logan’s POV

“I said let go.” Her voice was harder now as she pulled harder against me and I saw something flicker in her eyes for just a second, and it wasn’t the quilt that I expected from staying out this long with contacting me, but genuine raw anger.

“You’re hurting me.”

“I’m hurting you? Are you serious right now? You disappear without a word, you ignore all my attempts to contact you, and I’m the one hurting you?”

The man beside her moved suddenly, his hand closing around my wrist with strength that I hadn’t expected as he calmly pulled my grip from her hand as he added. “She asked you to let go. I suggest you listen.”

I found myself shoved backward, humiliated by her boytoy in public. The stranger stepped between us, his posture protective, aggressive.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded.

“None of your business.”

“It is my business when you’re putting your hands on my wife.” I tried to step around him to get to Sedona, but he blocked me, his expression cold and hostile.

“Your wife? That’s rich. You mean the woman you’ve been parading your mistress around in front of? The woman you’ve been emotionally abusing for months? That wife?”

“Mistress? Katherine isn’t my- Wait, how do you even know about Katherine?”

“Because Sedona told me everything. Every detail of how you’ve treated her, how your family has treated her. And frankly, you’re lucky I’m restraining myself right now, because what I really want to do is put you through that wall.”

The threat was delivered calmly, and something in his eyes told me he absolutely meant it and the only reason he wasn’t carrying out his threat was that we were in public and it wouldn’t look good on him. This wasn’t some random guy Sedona had picked up. This was someone who cared about her, someone who was willing to fight for her.

“Sedona, who is this?” I demanded, trying to see past him. “What’s going on?”

Before she could answer, I heard a small voice behind me. “Dad? What’s happening? Why are you yelling?”

I turned to find Nick standing a few feet away, his eyes wide and confused. He must have followed me from the café.

“Nick, go back to Aunt Katherine-”

But Nick wasn’t looking at me. His gaze had shifted as he recognized his mum, and his face lit up with recognition. “Mom! You’re here!”

He ran toward her, dodging around the stranger, and reached for Sedona’s hand. “Mom, are you okay? You look sick. Did you come here because you’re sick? Are you going to come home now?”

Sedona’s POV

Nick’s small hand wrapped around mine holding on tight in a way that I felt my heart was going to break just from the familiarity of it.

For a moment-I let myself imagine saying yes. Imagine going home with them, imagine pretending that everything was fine, that I could still be the mother Nick needed and the wife Logan wanted me to be.

But I couldn’t. Not anymore.

Logan’s jaw clenched. “You can’t just be done. We have a son together. We have a marriage. You don’t get to walk away just because you’re having some kind of crisis.”

“Watch me.”

“Sedona, think about what you’re doing. Think about Nick. He needs his mother.”

The laugh that escaped me was bitter, broken. “Nick made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t need me. That he doesn’t want me. He has you and Katherine now. That’s what he wanted, right? That’s what you all wanted.”

“That’s not ” Logan ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. “Yes, Nick said some things he shouldn’t have. He’s six years old. He doesn’t understand-”

“He understands enough to know he hates me. He understands enough to wish I wasn’t his mother. And you know what? I’m giving him exactly what he wants. I’m stepping aside. Letting Katherine be the mother he actually wants, letting you have the wife you should have married in the first place.”

“You’re being ridiculous-”

“Am I?” I stepped closer, ignoring the wave of dizziness that threatened to knock me off my feet. “You told me it was none of my business when you took my son to Disneyland with your ex-girlfriend. You told me to stop being selfish when I asked you to come home because I was sick. Well, guess what, Logan? It’s none of your business what I do or who I’m with anymore. Just like you told me.”

I saw his eyes narrow. “So this is revenge? You’re throwing away our marriage, abandoning our son, just to get back at me?”

“No. This is self-preservation. This is me finally accepting that I was never your choice, never your wife- just a temporary replacement. You can have Katherine now. You can build the family you actually wanted. And I can stop pretending that I’m enough.”

“Sedona-”

“No.” I cut him off. “I’m done with this conversation. I’m done with you. I’m done with all of it.”