Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 172

Chapter 167: Restraining Order

Sedona’s POV

“Of course you did,” Cameron said, his tone sounding both complicated and exasperated about it, but not saying anything further at the moment.

My father had been quiet through this exchange, listening. Now he said: “What do you need from us, Sedona? Specifically.”

I looked at him.

“The attorney meeting next week,” I said. “I’d like someone to come with me. Not to speak for me-I’m doing this myself. But to-” I stopped. “It would help to not go alone.”

“I’ll come,” my mother said immediately, volunteering herself for the job, already mentally rescheduling her engagements.

“I’ll come too,” my father said.

“I’ll be there,” Cameron said, which was three people for a legal consultation which seemed far too crowded but I wasn’t going to argue about it.

“The Chicago hearing,” I said. “When it’s scheduled-I don’t know when that will be yet. Could be months. But when it happens, I’ll need-I’ll need to go to Chicago,”

“Then we go to Chicago,” Cameron said. The same thing my mother had said, simple like that, like it wasn’t them rearranging their lives to move to a strange city, on a whim..

I looked around the table. My mother with her coffee, my father’s steady attention, Cameron with his phone face down and his full focus on me.

Three months ago I’d been in a hotel room in Chicago alone.

“Nick,” Cameron said, after a moment. He said it differently from how he’d said the other things-quieter, the quality of something he’d been holding separately.

“What about Nick?” I asked.

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“I saw him once,” he said. “When you were in the hospital, when we ran into your ex husband, and he was mouthing off, with Catherine, practically on his arms. He was with Logan.” He paused. “I was angry. At Logan, at Catherine, at the whole situation. I didn’t talk to him.”

“You were angry at everyone,” I said.

“I was angry at everyone,” he confirmed. “But he was six and he hadn’t done anything and I walked past him because I was furious at his father.” He looked at his phone, face down on the table. “I’ve been thinking about that.”

“He didn’t know who you were,” I said.

< Restraining etter-

“know” Cameron said. “That’s part of it. He looked up at me and I just walked past.”

Claim

“He knows about you now,” I said. “I’ve told him. He knows he has an uncle in Seattle.” I paused. “He wants to meet everyone.”

My mother made a small sound.

“He asked if he could,” I said. “On our second call. I told him yes.”

My mother pressed her fingers over her mouth for a moment. Then she put her hand down and grabbed her coffee with the composure of someone trying to compose herself without drawing too much attention to herself.

“My grandson,” she said quietly.

“Yes,” I said.

“He’s six.”

“He’ll be seven in February.”

She nodded slowly. “And he called you,” she said. “He calls you.”

“He calls me,” I said. “We’ve had three calls. They’re-they’re good calls now. He’s good, Mum. He’s a good

kid.”

“Tell me something about him,” she said.

So I did.

I told them about the soccer story, the fall and Marcus laughing and then also falling. I told them about the glow stars on his ceiling, Gerald the Boot. I told them about him asking to see the numbers that proved I was better.

I talked for a while.

My mother listened with her hands around her coffee cup.

My father listened with his eyes on me and an expression that I understood, looking at it, was a grandfather’s expression. Something he’d been waiting for without knowing he was waiting for. He and my mum had resigned themselves to not having kids, after I was out of the picture for the past few years and Cameron while still in his thirties and considerably young had not made any attempts in settling down and they knew better than to demand kids from people who had not yet made it their priority. But now listening about a grandkids they had not yet seen and would be seeing soon, if things went well, was a special kind of joy, I hadn’t realized they would like this much.

Cameron listened and didn’t say anything, which was its own kind of attention as well.

When I stopped, the kitchen was quiet for a moment.

“We’ll go to Chicago,” my father said again. “Whenever it needs to happen. For the hearing, for-for whatever it needs to be.”

“And if there’s a chance to see him,” my mother said. “If you think it’s the right time.”

با

3

<Restraining erber-

“I know when it’s right,” I said. “I’ll tell you.”

Claim

Cameron picked up his phone. Turned it over. Looked at the screen. “I’m calling the police this morning,” he said. “And Lucian about the footage. And the attorney’s office to make sure they’re aware of the stalking documentation before your meeting next week.” He paused. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s-yes. Do all of that.”

He nodded. Stood up. Looked at me one more time with the expression he’d been having more of lately, the one where he was being just my brother rather than the guy who manages everything in the house. “You should have told us sooner,” he said, without heat.

“I know,” I said.

“You were going to figure it out by yourself first,” he said.

“I did figure it out by myself first,” I said. “Now I’m telling you.””

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