She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 119

(Chase)

My office looks like a crime scene.

I’ve spent the last four hours systematically tearing the Bauer merger apart line by line.

My grandfather’s voice has been ringing in my skull all afternoon.

Defense is for losers.

He was right.

I’m done playing around with proxy servers and extension requests.

I’m building a forensic trap that will hand Jeffrey Bauer to the SEC on a silver platter and leave him bankrupt.

I’m four coffees deep and practically vibrating with the need to break something.

My door flies open and Natasha stalks into the room.

She reaches back, grabs the heavy oak door, and slams it shut.

"You son of a bitch," she says.

She doesn't yell.

The words are pitched low and lethal.

She walks straight toward my desk, her eyes burning right through me.

"If this is about the custody response-" I start, tossing my pen onto the legal pad.

"Don't play the lawyer card with me," she snaps. “I just came from St. Jude’s. I had Dr. Bailey pull my master file to get a medical clearance. Do you want to know what we found?"

"Natasha, I don't-"

"End-stage organ failure, Chase!" she shouts, the control finally cracking. "Systemic collapse. According to my chart from Dr. Evans, I was hospitalized for an adrenal crisis in October. In November, I was functionally bedridden. My blood panels belong to a terminal patient."

I just stare at her.

My brain stalls out, trying to process the absolute absurdity of what she is saying.

"What are you talking about? You were in Tokyo with me in October."

"I bloody know!"

She steps right up to the edge of my desk, slamming her hand down on the wood.

"Someone tampered with my files. They poisoned my medical history to make it look like I’m dying. And then your legal team served me with a document citing a 'documented history of severe medical incapacitation'."

She leans in, her voice shaking with raw, violent disgust.

"How much did you pay him, Chase? How much did it cost to get Evans to fabricate a paper trail so you could prove I’m an unfit mother?"

The sheer insult of it shorts out my brain for a full second.

I stand up slowly.

The anger that spikes in my chest is so hot and blinding it entirely eclipses the Bauer mess.

"You think I did that?" I ask.

"Who else benefits?" she demands. "You need leverage to keep Lily from me, so you built a trap."

"I’m a bastard, Natasha, but I’m not that kind of bastard," I fire back, stepping around the desk to close the distance between us.

"You think I would take the worst trauma of your life and weaponize it against you?"

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