She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 143

(Mason)

The Warren Global Foundation gala is on Saturday, and I’ve spent most of Friday afternoon trying to talk myself out of what I’m about to do.

I’m not winning the argument.

The argument keeps going like this.

Mason. You’re a grown man. You own a mergers and acquisitions firm. You’re about to weaponize a twenty-six-year-old woman whose primary crime is being too sincere about wellness, in order to provoke a public outburst from the husband of the woman you’re in love with.

To which I have, all afternoon, been responding with various versions of yes, but he deserves it.

I pick Chloe up from her apartment at six forty-five.

She’s wearing a white dress that is very tight and very short but also looks really good against her tan skin.

Her dark hair is up, with carefully arranged tendrils framing her face.

She’s radiating the specific brightness of a young woman who’s been told she’s going to be photographed and has prepared accordingly.

"Mason! Oh my God, you look so handsome."

"Thank you, Chloe. You look beautiful."

She smiles happily and presses a kiss to my cheek.

In the back of the car, on the way to the venue, I do the briefing.

Gently and indirectly, with no specific instructions, so that at no point in the rest of my life can I honestly say that I told a young woman to ambush a billionaire.

"There are going to be a lot of important people there tonight."

"I know! I made a list."

I stop myself before asking why. I probably don’t want to know.

"Chase Warren is going to be there. He's hosting."

"Oh my God I love Chase Warren. He's so brooding. He has that whole I'm hurting and only the right woman can fix me thing."

"Mm."

"It's hot."

"Mhm. Listen. You should feel free to talk to him. He likes meeting new people."

"Oh, totally. I have so many questions for him about, like, the merger drama. Is it true he and Natasha are getting divorced? Is it true he tried to take Lily? My friend Skylar said-"

"You should ask him whatever feels natural."

"I love that. Life should be natural. We spend too much time following scripts."

The car is gliding up Stone Canyon.

I’m about to do something I’m going to feel guilty about for a long time.

I tell myself, again, that I’m not telling her to do anything.

I’m giving her permission to be herself.

There’s a difference.

I’m a liar.

The gala is exactly what you’d expect.

White flowers, gold lighting, a string quartet doing a version of a song they wouldn’t normally play.

Chase is at the center of it with a smile that seems welded onto his face.

He’s shaking hands and doing the host thing.

He’s doing it well, like men of his upbringing usually do, but underneath it there’s a hairline crack running the whole length of him that I can see because I’m looking for it.

I park Chloe near the bar with a glass of champagne and a clear sightline to him.

"I'm just going to say hi to Gloria over there," I tell her. "Mingle. Have fun. Be yourself."

"I always am, Mason."

"I know."

I walk to the other side of the room and I find Gloria.

"Why are you looking so guilty, Mason?"

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