Divorce to Destiny: Reclaiming My CEO Husband novel Chapter 50

50 Happy Families 

(Winona) 

Oh great, that’s all I need this week! Talk about Mondayitis. I walk past the magazine stand on the street near our office building and guess who’s on the front cover of all the gossip magazines. Jayden Brennan. 

Who even still reads this crap? But marketing is my job and I need to get on top of it. Not hard to see I’ve had some time off. I grab a couple and go pay for them. 

Then I do a search on my socials. 

Jayden Brennan’s Ex–wife hides his child 

Serious health issues for first born Brennan heir 

Has Jayden Brennan lost his killer CEO edge 

Rinse and repeat. 

Where do they get their information? I mean, they aren’t exactly wrong, but how do they know all this? I think we have a rat. Judy? Ashlyn? 

Hell, it could be anyone looking to make a quick buck. But not just anyone knows about Abby’s paternity. Could be guessing just for a headline I suppose. 

I need to study the stories and try to pinpoint if they are speculating or not. 

The Brennan empire is big news. All publicity is good publicity. I have to make it so. I think it’s time Jayden did a happy family interview or something similar. I sigh. Happy families. What a dream! 

Phillip had apologized for his behavior on Friday night after our party drinks. In fact, he says he can’t really remember everything. He’s also confessed he is an alcoholic. 

But, he’d stopped going to meetings. He thought he had a handle on it and was fine. I think this may be why he’s estranged from his family. 

He swears he’ll never drink again and he’s not only going to go back to meetings, he’s going to set up a charity funding help around recovering addicts. He was so sorry. But when you get scared like that, sorry don’t cut it. I need time to grow trust for him again. 

It really burst our bubble. We’ve been business partners for over three years. You think you know someone. I guess I should have asked more questions from the start. 

But I wasn’t exactly a shining beacon of stability back then. I just wanted things to be okay and my life to settle down for the baby. 

Phillip was that stability, I see that now. I need to at least give him a chance. Later we’ll sit and have a real conversation about his addiction and how it’s affected his past. 

As for the engagement well, I may take a step back from that. Not just because of Phillip doing what he did. 

That kiss with Jayden. I mean, wow. I think I can put it down to the high emotions and probably his memory coming back. But it also brought back to me just how deep our passion for each other ran. Still 

+25 BONUS 

50 Happy Families 

runs, obviously. Stupid of me to think I could hide from that. 

You cannot run away from yourself. 

I walk into work and push the elevator button to the top floor. Board meeting day. I’m not too worried. I have the proof that marketing will easily begin to rake the money back in. Polishing the turd that is the Brennans may prove harder but I’ll get there. 

Sell ice to the Eskimos, no problem. But these latest headlines won’t help my cause. Firstly, because I’m trying to keep the Brennan name looking good and secondly because I’m a direct reason there are headlines. I can’t distance him from the problem, so we need to get creative. 

We also need to quell any expectation of us getting back together. So it looks like his new marriage will need to be announced. Hopefully Ashlyn had calmed since Friday night. 

I took the blame because it just makes it easier. She already sees me as the enemy. If she gives Jayden a hard time he will divorce her. Then I have that to smooth over in the media. 

I want to keep this new job so badly, to prove I can do it and set Abby up with enough funds for her future. I guess she’ll always have the Brennan fortune now. She doesn’t need me to earn her money. 

That thought hits me hard. Now she’s been accepted as a Brennan, the only person in the way of that being a happy family is me. In Judy’s mind anyway. I better watch my back even more. 

The elevator pings and I step out into the boardroom. Looks like everyone is here and the room is buzzing, I see Lance and walk over to him. “Hey, what’s going on in here? It’s never this energetic.” 

“Apparently, Brennan Industries has been hit by a hostile takeover. On the weekend.” 

“What!?” 

Lance nods and looks serious. “Enough shareholders sold out to an unknown entity that has now acquired a controlling majority.” 

“How does this even happen?”