She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 126

(Natasha)

Liam is staying with me for the weekend and treating it like a press tour.

He has two callbacks lined up, a friend's experimental short film to attend, and a printed list of delicatessens he’s hunting with the fervor of a man going to war.

On Saturday morning he drags me out of my home office and into the passenger seat of my own car.

"You're working too hard," he tells me.

"It's an emergency. We're going to Beverly."

"I have a deal closing."

"You have a brother visiting and a daughter who already loves him more than you. Move."

I let him drive.

We’re walking past store windows, Liam mid-monologue about the script he’s writing when he stops mid-sentence and grabs my elbow.

"Oh my God."

"What?"

"Her."

He’s staring through the window of a luxury luggage store.

A woman stands at the counter while an assistant shows her a set of Louis Vuitton bags.

It’s Sonia.

"No," I say.

"Yes. It’s fate Natasha."

"Liam, you don’t-"

He’s already through the door.

I follow because the alternative is letting my twenty-year-old foster brother accost my husband's mistress unsupervised, and that’s not a story I want to tell anyone.

Sonia turns when the door opens and sees me first.

Something happens to her face that I can’t place.

Not the smug little smile she usually puts on for my benefit.

Something closer to flinching, almost immediately rebranded as nothing.

"Natasha."

"Sonia."

That’s as far as we get before Liam interrupts.

"Excuse me," he says, deploying the voice he uses when he’s being charming on purpose.

"I’m so sorry to interrupt. I just need you to know that you are exactly what I've been looking for."

Sonia blinks.

"I’m a writer," Liam continues, undeterred. Completely leaving off the student part of that sentence.

"I'm working on a script and you would be perfect for the lead role. Has anyone ever told you you have the most photogenic-"

"Liam."

"I'm not being smarmy, it’s a genuine offer."

He waves me off and turns back to Sonia expectantly.

Sonia, who normally preens under male attention the way a houseplant turns toward a window, does not flutter her lashes.

She mutters, "That's very sweet, thank you," and looks at the sales assistant like she would like to be rescued.

She’s avoiding eye contact with me at all costs.

"Madam, would this set suffice?" the assistant prompts.

"Yes." Far too quickly. "I'll take it."

I look at the size of the suitcase.

It’s the kind of luggage you buy when you’re going somewhere you don’t intend to come back from soon.

This isn’t a three week holiday travel set.

"Sonia. Are you going somewhere?"

Her expression shutters.

"Maybe," she says lightly. "I’ve been feeling like I may need a change of scenery."

She doesn't elaborate. She also doesn't look at me.

Liam, magnificently oblivious, presses on.

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