Growing up, his parents fought constantly, and his father was entirely absent from his childhood.
After college, his father had personally groomed him to take over the empire. He had idolized the man, but the tragedy was that business was the only thing they ever knew how to talk about. There was no real warmth.
He had promised himself that no matter how absolutely toxic things got with Tallulah, he was going to make sure his children grew up in a fully intact family.
To him, that was the ultimate duty of a real man.
As for Winona... if she ever decided she wanted to come crawling back to him, he'd still be perfectly willing to set her up in an apartment and take care of her.
*
Winona stopped by to visit her aunt Helena. Seeing that the salon was booming with customers, she was genuinely surprised.
Helena pointed across the street at Tallulah's salon. "They bled too much money and had to board the place up. I told you, running a business isn't a charity. You can't operate at a catastrophic loss just to spite your competition. No matter how deep their pockets are, they couldn't sustain that burn rate."
Winona did a quick search online and realized the internet had actually doxxed Tallulah's salon. Activists had flooded social media, demanding everyone boycott the "animal abuser's business."
The posts had tens of thousands of shares.
No wonder Tallulah's store shut down so fast.
It was a relief. At least now Tallulah wouldn't be able to harass her aunt on a daily basis.
As Winona was getting ready to head home, Wynne called her.
"Winona, let's go play tennis this Saturday! Invite Stefan, Forrest, and Simone. It'll be a great group. You young people spend way too much time cooped up in offices, you need to get out and move around on the weekends!"
Winona was surprised Wynne had already met Simone Sterling.
It sounded like things between Forrest and Simone were definitely getting serious.
Remembering Maxine Zeller's strict medical advice to stay active, Winona happily agreed.
That night, she brought it up to Stefan.
"Are you free this Saturday? We're all going to play tennis."
Stefan looked at her, amused. "You know how to play?"
Winona puffed her chest out confidently. "I was in the tennis club in college! Of course I can play. Oh, and I'm really good at fencing, too. I trained under my mentor for a while, and my technique is solid. We should spar sometime."
At the mention of fencing, a very strange, almost suspicious look flashed across Stefan's face.
But he quickly masked it, offering a low hum of agreement.
"Alright. I'll clear my schedule for you."

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Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule)
This guy Julen is an idiot, he is so full of himself....