She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 79

(Nathanial)

Sonia calls at noon and asks if she can come over that evening.

I haven’t seen much of her recently.

I neglected her for a bit when I found out about Nat’s death.

But in fairness, I neglected myself as well while dealing with that overwhelming grief.

When I was more myself and tried to visit her, she told me not to come around the Warren estate.

Apparently she was learning to stand on her own feet.

She arrives looking ready in a way I recognize.

Composed, a little too deliberate, carrying the energy of someone who’s spent hours psyching themselves up for something hard.

She sits down and tells me.

All of it.

The phone calls timed to interrupt our evenings.

The things she whispered in my ear about Gloria that weren't true.

The tears, the crises, the endless careful erosion of something I thought was simply falling apart on its own.

I listen to every word without interrupting.

When she finishes, she looks at me with genuine contrition and says Dr. Reeves helped her understand that she couldn't move forward while carrying this.

That she's sorry.

That she loves me and made a terrible mistake.

I nod once.

Then I ask her to leave, because I can’t look at her for another second.

She goes, which surprises me slightly.

The Sonia I know would insist I forgive her. Give her closure.

Maybe she really is trying to change.

That doesn’t fix the past though.

I sit in my living room for twenty minutes looking at nothing.

The thing is, I remember those years very clearly.

The fights that came from nowhere.

Me being cold because Gloria refused to understand that my baby sister needed me.

Gloria pulling back, becoming unreachable.

Me feeling confused and hurt and then just tired.

I remember thinking that perhaps we simply wanted different things.

That Gloria couldn’t accept my responsibilities to my family.

What I was actually watching was my sister, methodically, taking our relationship apart one small lie at a time.

I pick up my phone and call Gloria.

(Gloria)

I know before he finishes his first sentence.

Not that Sonia confessed, that part is new information, and genuinely shocking.

Sonia voluntarily handing someone a weapon to use against her is out of character, which means she's calculated that it isn't one.

What I already know is everything else.

I saw it all play out and tried to tell Nathanial, but he just thought I was bad-mouthing his beloved sister.

I didn’t know about the lies she told, but by the end I was able to guess.

When the pattern became too consistent to be coincidence.

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