She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 54

Chapter 54 Twenty Boxes

(Chase)

Breakfast has the strained atmosphere of a funeral with better china.

My mother is all syntipathy and soft voices.

Sonia is pale and delicate and arranged at the table like grief itself.

Mother dabs at her mouth with a linen napkin and announces that the photographer has been cancelled.

“Under the circumstances, it would be in extremely poor taste to proceed with the family Christmas portraits.”

Sonia lowers her eyes as if she’s too fragile for language.

My mother squeezes her hand. I drink my coffee and say nothing.

I don’t particularly enjoy posing for photos, but this is Lily’s first Christmas.

Nevermind. My phone has a great camera and it will be more relaxed than being told by a stranger how to arrange ourselves.

By the time we finish eating, Sonia claims a headache and goes upstairs to lie down.

That gives me the perfect opportunity to get the gifts from my car.

The boot is full.

I stand there for a moment, staring at the boxes piled inside it.

Red ribbons. Gold ribbons. White boxes, cream boxes, one enormous green one with a bow the size of a housecat.

I know I went overboard, but it’s the first time I’ve been this excited about Christmas in years.

I carry in the first stack myself.

The butler appears in the doorway. “Sir?”

“I’ve got it.”

He retreats.

I bring in three boxes. Then four more. Then another armful.

By the third trip I’m sweating through my coat and starting to question whether a baby who’s not even six months old yet, truly requires an Italian cashmere pram suit, a silver rabbit rattle, hand-smocked dresses, a star-themed mobile, a monogrammed baby blanket, wooden blocks, teething rings shaped like moons, and a stuffed elephant almost the same size she is.

I decide she does.

By eleven fifty, there are twenty boxes stacked under the tree.

At eleven fifty-five, I remember that there are additional deliveries scheduled for this afternoon.

Yep Definitely went overboard. Thank God I didn’t indulge the urge to get Lily a pony.

At noon precisely, Natasha walks in carrying Lily.

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She stops dead in the doorway. Her gaze moves from me, to the mountain of boxes.

Chase.”

I shrug.

Natasha shifts Lily higher against her shoulder and stares at the pile again.

“Did you buy out a department store?”

“Not intentionally.”

“That’s not a reassuring answer.”

Lily, for her part, could not care less.

She’s wearing a red knit bonnet and looking around the room with no more interest in the presents than she has in the candlesticks.

“You’ll have to open them for her,” I tell Natasha.

“What about your mother and Sonia? Shouldn’t we wait for them? Oh! And the photo shoot.”

“It’s been cancelled. Let Lily have her presents now.”

I’ll tell her about the miscarriage after.

I take Lily from Natasha while she kneels by the nearest box.

“This is absurd,” she says, but she’s smiling.

The first gift is a soft grey elephant with floppy ears. Natasha laughs under her breath.

“He looks like he’s been through tax season.”

The next boxes hold the silver rabbit rattle, cloth books with crinkly pages, the star mobile, and the pram suit. Natasha lifts the tiny coat and just looks at me.

“Chase. Did you really buy cashmere for someone who just discovered their own toes?”

“It will keep her warm.”

Lily makes a tiny squeaking noise and fists a handful of my shirt as if to remind us both that she’s the main event. 1

The gifts keep coming.

Tiny leather shoes she can’t possibly wear for months.

A Vicuña wool blanket soft enough to guarantee sweet dreams.

A musical snow globe.

A carved rocking horse that belongs in a royal nursery.

Natasha shakes her head at every fresh piece of extravagance and then opens the next box faster.

When she reaches the smaller stack set apart from the rest, she pauses.

“These aren’t for Lily.”

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“No.”

opens the first one slowly.

The earrings catch the light immediately.

Diamonds and blue sapphires, elegant and very obviously expensive enough to start an argument.

Natasha exhales. “Chase, I can’t accept these.”

“They reminded me of your eyes. You have to.”

She looks up and color rises in her cheeks.

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