She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 44

Chapter 44 The Patriarch Arrives

Chase)

Hendrik Morton fills a doorway the way very few men can.

He doesn’t need height for it.

He isn’t particularly tall.

He just carries himself with the absolute certainty of a man who has never once walked into a room and wondered whether he belonged there.

My mother greets him in the foyer with her most practiced smile.

The one she reserves for people whose wealth she respects even when she doesn’t like them.

Hendrik accepts the pleasantries with a short nod and hands his coat to the nearest staff member without looking

at them.

His eyes are already scanning the room.

I watch from near the fireplace, scotch in hand, as those eyes find each of his children in turn.

Piper first. He gives her a brief nod, his expression radiating approval at her perfect posture and composure.

Julian next. A barely perceptible flicker of something between wariness and resignation.

It’s gratifying to see Julian has that effect on even his own father.

Then Nathanial.

Hendrik’s gaze settles on his step-son and stays there just a beat too long.

It’s the look of a man taking inventory and finding the numbers slightly off.

Nathanial straightens almost imperceptibly.

The reaction is so automatic it’s almost painful to watch.

Twenty years of conditioning distilled into a single, involuntary adjustment of the spine.

I take a sip of my drink and say nothing.

Julian drifts to my side, champagne glass in hand, wearing the expression of a man who’s bought a front-row seat to a show he’s seen before and still finds entertaining.

“Brace yourself,” Julian murmurs pleasantly.

“Father likes to establish the hierarchy within the first ten minutes. He says it’s more efficient than small talk.”

He isn’t wrong.

Hendrik spends exactly seven minutes on pleasantries with my mother before cutting smoothly across the room toward Nathaniel.

The move is so practiced it barely registers as deliberate.

One moment he’s accepting a drink and complimenting a painting. The next, he’s steered his step-son into the

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quieter end of the long sitting room with the firm, unhurried authority of a man redirecting traffic.

This is the first time we’ve all been in a room together.

Lassumed Sonia’s pregnancy would be the main topic of conversation, but it seems I’m being spared.

Or maybe that’s just being put on hold until she arrives:

Sonia has always been very fond of making at entrance, I’m not expecting her to arrive for at least another half

hour.

Piper appears at my elbow, her sharp gaze tracking her father and step-brother with the focused attention of someone monitoring a chess board.

“My step-mother has apparently been in a terrible state all week. Crying, neglecting meals. The psychiatrist is involved again. She refused to come on the trip with my father.”

Her voice is flat and informational, stripped of any particular emotion.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” I reply.

Piper glances at me sideways.

The look communicates very clearly that she does not particularly care.

Across the room, I can see Hendrik talking in the low, precise register of a man delivering a verdict rather than having a conversation.

Nathanial listens with his jaw locked and his eyes fixed somewhere over his step-father’s shoulder.

I check my watch.

Natasha will be giving Lily her evening feed right about now.

Sarah would have run the bath already, lavender drops in the water the way Lily likes, though she’s too young to have stated a preference and I’m aware I’m projecting.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I step away from Piper to answer it, hoping it may be Natasha.

Business. A contract query from Tokyo that should have been resolved two days ago. I take care of it in four

sentences.

Of course there’s no reason for Natasha to call me. Hoping for it is ridiculous.

When I look back at the room, Nathanial and Hendrik are still locked in their quiet exchange.

Whatever is being said, Nathanial’s expression has shifted from controlled blankness into something rawer and less managed.

Julian watches his step-brother with undisguised amusement.

“He’s giving him the speech,” Julian informs me, appearing again with a freshly topped glass.

“The one about family management being the prerequisite for empire management. I’ve heard it four times. Piper only twice. Nathanial gets it most often because Nathanial cares most, which Father has identified as a leverage point”

Julian swirls his drink with a smirk.

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