Jilted Ex-wife Billionaire Heiress novel Chapter 106

Chapter 106 Lifeline

While Darya’s phone inbox was slowly filling up with voice messages left by Morton’s housekeeper, each one sounding more urgent than the last, she was having a debate with her brother over the most interesting music

videos ever made.

Her money was on Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,‘ but Callan swore by Gorillaz’s ‘Clint Eastwood.‘

Marshmallow, not fully understanding the concept of ‘interesting,‘ consulted big data and voted for ‘Baby Shark

Dance.‘.

‘It has the most views,‘ the robotic dog claimed when both Darya and Callan disagreed with his choice. ‘More than ten billion and counting.”

Darya still stood by her original answer, but she had to admit, the Pinkfong song was quite an earworm.

So much so that she was humming ‘Do do, do–do–do–do‘ when she switched her phone back on.

Her screen came to life, then froze momentarily as messages flooded in.

She scanned the first one, then deleted the rest of the twenty–six messages from the same number.

Her phone rang the next instant.

Darya sighed, then hit Answer. ‘Yes?‘

‘Miss Miller? Darya Miller?‘

‘Speaking.‘

‘Please hold.‘ The housekeeper, mightily relieved, hastily passed the phone to Morton before hurrying away, disappearing into the bathroom.

‘This is Morton Cavanaugh,‘ the old man said haughtily.

‘I know,‘ Darya said. ‘What do you want?‘

She sniffed the air.

It smelled like caramel.

She glanced towards the kitchen.

Callan must be making popcorn.

‘Is that how you talk to your elders?‘ Morton huffed. ‘Where are your manners?‘

Darya turned her attention back to the call. ‘What can I do for you, Mr Cavanaugh? If you are calling to ask for

your ring back, you can hang up now. Like I told you, no deal.‘

‘So you’d rather hold on to the ring than save yourself?‘

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Chapter 106 Lifeline

‘Save myself?‘ Darya raised an eyebrow. ‘I wasn’t aware my life was in danger.”

‘Not your life, at least not yet. But your reputation, your dream of marrying up,‘

‘What about my reputation?‘

Morton exhaled loudly. ‘Have you been living under the rock? Even a woman as poor as you must have Internet in your house.‘

‘So?‘

‘So you must have seen the story online.‘

‘There are many stories online. Which one are you talking about?‘

‘Are you being deliberately dense? You know which one I’m talking about!‘ Morton shouted.

Darya pulled the phone away from her ear. ‘Calm down, Mr Cavanaugh.‘

As much as she disliked the old man, she didn’t want to be responsible for causing his death via heart attack.

Or a burst aneurysm.

Morton was touchy and quick–tempered, especially when he felt his authority being challenged.

‘The post!‘ he yelled. ‘The post with your name in it!‘

‘Oh, that one. Yup, I might have seen it. What about it?‘

Morton narrowed his eyes. ‘You can drop the act. I know how you must be feeling.‘

He wished he’d made a video call instead of a phone call.

That way, he could see the look on the woman’s face.

She was probably hiding out in a dark, damp apartment somewhere, with the curtains shut tightly, surrounded

by balled–up tissues, eyes red and puffy from crying, her hair an uncombed mess.

‘I hear you haven’t been to the office for two days,‘ Morton said. ‘What happened? Your boyfriend suspended

you?‘

‘I have more than one boyfriend, at least according to the famous post. Which one are you referring to?‘

‘Avery McAllister. He got you the job at Paragon, right? Now that you are embroiled in a scandal, he’s trying to distance himself from you, isn’t he? He hasn’t spoken up for you since the post came out. Not a word. Did the board order him to keep quiet? To cut ties with you? Let me guess, Paragon’s stock price must have gone through the floor.‘

‘Paragon is a private company wholly owned by the McAllister family.‘ Darya corrected him. ‘Its stocks are not publicly traded.‘

‘I, I knew that, of course! I misspoke.‘ Morton quickly changed the subject. ‘I know this must be a difficult time. for you. Your boyfriends abandoned you. The media are crucifying you online. You are probably going to lose your job.‘

‘So you are calling to express your sympathies?‘

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Chapter 106 Lifeline

‘I’m calling to offer you a way out. A lifeline, actually.‘

Darya chuckled. ‘Let me guess, the price for the lifeline is your precious jade ring?‘

‘‘It’s only fair. My help doesn’t come cheap. Do you know how many palms I’ll have to grease to get that post

removed?‘

Callan came into the living room with a big glass bowl of popcorn.

He pulled a face when he heard Morton’s voice.