“Darling, Vale said you were sick. Are you feeling better? Did you miss me?”
She smiled sweetly. “This time, I’m not going anywhere. You should take a break from work and just focus on getting better.”
As she spoke, she lifted a watch and held it out.
“Look, I picked this out just for you. I even had our names engraved. The ticking hands represent my love, steady, constant, never-ending.”
If not for the strong scent of a man’s cologne clinging to her, I might’ve believed those words.
After all, she had always been good at acting in love.
Even before she boarded the plane, she had been locked in a deep embrace with that Italian man, his scent still clinging to her skin like an unforgivable truth.
I looked at Reese with a heart full of sorrow, my gaze falling to the gentle swell of her belly.
With a hoarse voice, I asked, “You’re pregnant?”
She froze for a heartbeat, then blurted out, “No!”
I let out a bitter smile.
“I saw the post you made. So does the world you’re willing to give up include me, too?”
Her fingers stiffened. She hesitated, then slowly pulled out her phone and opened her social media. Her expression shifted, over and over.
Moments later, in silence, she peeled off her clothes and unfastened the belly band around her waist.
“Since you’ve already seen the post,” she said flatly, “I won’t hide it anymore.”
“They’re my husband and children overseas. They’re my family.”
I stared at her in disbelief, searching her face for guilt, remorse, anything. But she looked calm. Unshaken. As if none of this was betrayal.
I straightened up, fury flaring in my chest. “Husband? Kids? Then what the hell am I?”
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she gently reached for my hand and clasped the watch around my wrist. Her tone was light as if she were talking about the weather.
“They’re my family over there. It has nothing to do with you. Evander Hale lives in Italy. He’s not coming here; it won’t affect your role at all.”
“He runs his trading company; you have your tech research and production; there’s no clash between you two.”
“Besides, I did it for our family. Your health isn’t the best, you can’t have children, and the Ellison Group is such a large company that it needs an heir, doesn’t it? Evander is tall, handsome, and a top university graduate. What’s wrong with me giving birth to an outstanding successor for the Ellison name?”