Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 26

LOGAN

The question felt like a punch to the gut as I tried not to show it. “What? No. Why would you think that?”

“Because he was with her at the hospital. And she said she was with him for days and nights. That’s what you did with Aunt Catherine. So I thought maybe Mom found her own Aunt Catherine.”

Jesus. Out of the mouths of babes. He had said what I had been avoiding.

“It’s not… that’s different,” I stammered, trying to think of a way out of this predicament.

“Aunt Catherine is just a friend. What your mom is doing is…” What? What was Sedona doing? I didn’t actually know. I’d assumed, accused, but I didn’t know what she was doing, all I had were assumptions.

“She’s just confused,” I said finally. “And that man is probably just helping her while she’s confused. But she’ll figure it out soon, and she’ll come home. I know she will.”

“How do you know?”

“Because she loves you too much to stay away. You’re her whole world, Nick. She gave up everything to take care of you. She wouldn’t just abandon that. She’s just… she’s testing me right now. Trying to make me jealous, trying to get a reaction. But once she realizes I’m not going to play her games, she’ll stop and come back home and she will apologize for hurting you with those words spoken at the hospital.”

Nick seemed satisfied with this explanation, though I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.

After tucking him in, I returned downstairs to find Catherine waiting in the living room, her purse in hand.

“I should go,” she said. “Give you some space to process everything. I don’t think I should sleep over, it will look improper.”

“You don’t have to rush off.”

“I think I do.” She smiled. “Logan, I need to say something, and I hope you won’t take it the wrong way.”

I tensed. “What?”

“I think maybe… maybe Sedona has a point. But maybe I have been around too much. Maybe my presence in your life has made her feel threatened, unwanted.”

“That’s not your fault-”

“I know. But it’s still happening.’

After Catherine left, I poured myself a scotch and collapsed onto the couch. The house was too quiet, the silence was loud, even when Sedona and I weren’t talking, I could hear her moving around, making some

background noises, doing mundane thi9ngs., it was never quiet with her around and I had gotten used to

But now there was nothing.

I pulled out my phone and stared at my conversation with Sedona. The last message was my accusation of childishness, met with her cold response about being with Cameron. Nothing since then.

Great. I stumbled out of bed and helped Nick to the bathroom, where he promptly vomited up what looked like most of last night’s dinner. I held his hair back and tried to remember what Sedona usually did in this kind of situations.

Ginger ale. She always gave him ginger ale and crackers.

Except I had no idea if we had ginger ale, or where she kept the crackers, or what else she did to make Nick feel better when he was sick.

After Nick finished being sick, I got him settled on the couch with a bowl nearby, incase his stomach acted up later and I placed a damp washcloth on his forehead. It was another thing that I had seen Sedona do countless times. Then I called the nanny and asked her to come in early today.

“Of course, Mr. Hayes. Is everything alright?”

“Nick’s sick. I have an important meeting this morning that I can’t miss.” The meeting was with future potential investors from Singapore and this meeting had been, scheduled weeks ago even before the disney trip. Rescheduling would look unprofessional.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

While waiting for the nanny, I tried to get ready for the day, I opened my closet to grab my suit and paused, noticing something I’d never paid attention to before.

Small fabric labels were sewn into the inside of every piece of clothing I owned. Not the regular manufacturer labels, but handmade ones, each carefully stitched in with tiny, precise stitches.

I pulled out a navy suit jacket and examined the label more closely. In Sedona’s neat handwriting, it read: “100% wool. Dry clean only. Best for formal meetings or galas. Pairs well with the gray tie with blue pinstripes.” Below the text was a tiny doodle-a stick figure man in a suit giving a thumbs up.