Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 186

Chapter 181: Plan A and B

Catherine’s POV

“What is actually there?” Alina said, curious as I say down properly, to explain what I meant.

“A woman who left her child,” I said. “Who signed away custody without being forced nor talking about it, she decided on her own without thinking of her son’s feelings or her husband. Who disappeared without telling anyone where she was, leaving Logan to search high and low for her for weeks. Who has been in Seattle for months building a life while her son asks about her.” I paused.

“Yes, she was ill. Yes, she had reasons. But the facts are the facts. And in a court of law, the facts are what matter, not the narrative, she was ill and chose to do what she did. Both things are mutually exclusive to this situation.”

“And with Dante,” Alina said. “The facts.”

“The fact is that he’s a professional athlete at the top of his career who needs to be on the circuit and traveling eleven months of the year,” I said.

“The fact is that he has a four-year-old son with custody complications of his own. The fact is that Sedona is in the middle of a legal case and a health recovery and a custody fight that’s going to get messy.” I paused. “That’s a lot of complicated for someone who’s been shut off for twelve years and is apparently just learning to open up.”

“You’re saying she might be too much for him,” Alina said.

“I’m saying that someone with uncomplicated warmth and a shared professional world and an existing relationship that spans a decade might look very appealing alongside that level of complexity.” I paused. “And that someone is going to be at the same tournaments, in the same facilities, being exactly that.”

Alina was quiet for a moment.

“You’ve thought about this carefully,” she said.

“I’ve had time to think,” I said. “A month of managing a six-year-old and a grieving family and a man who was chasing someone else across the country gives you a lot of time to think,”

“And Nick?” she said. “If you move toward Dante-”

“Logan and I don’t have a formal arrangement,” I said. “Nothing official. I’ve been present and helpful and I’ve built something with his son and his mother. But there’s no commitment.” I paused.

“If Dante Wells is a viable option, then my obligation is to my own best interests. Logan has had every opportunity to make something official. If he doesn’t-” I stopped. “I like Logan. I have feelings for Logan that have been real for a long time. But I’m almost thirty and I’m going back on tour and I’m not going to wait indefinitely for a man who spent a month in a motel room trying to get back a woman who’d already moved on.”

“So Logan is Plan A and Dante is the contingency,” Alina said.

1.3

Plan A and B

Claim

“Dante is a possibility I’m not going to close the door on,” I said. “Which is different from a plan. Plans require action. A possibility requires only that I stay in the same spaces and allow for what might develop.”

“You’ve always been good at staying in the same spaces, waiting for things to come your way, for him to do the brave thing and choose you instead of clinging onto a life that is making him miserable.” Alina said.

“Yes,” I said. “I have.”

She made the sound of someone settling something internally. “All right,” she said. “The circuit starts in January. Your fitness assessment is when?”

“Wednesday,” I said. “I’m expecting clearance.”

“And the Chicago invitational?”

“February,” I said. “Logan has already talked about bringing Nick.”

“Perfect,” she said. “In front of the home crowd, with the boy watching. That’s the image that gets photographed.”

“That’s the image that gets photographed,” I agreed.

She moved on to logistics-the training schedule, the travel plan for the Australian Open, the agent conversations that needed to happen before the season began. We talked for another twenty minutes about the practical architecture of a return to the tour, and it was only at the end, when we were wrapping up, that she said:

“Catherine. Be careful.” Her tone filled with both concern and apprehension..this was dangerous, she could tell and there was no talking me out of it.

“I’m always careful,” I said.

“Be more careful than that,” she said. “She’s smarter than you’ve been assuming. And if she’s managed to get Dante Wells to open up after twelve years of being shut off-”

“I’ll keep that in mind, and I have other ways to get him to see that what I am offering is ten times better than what Sedona is giving him” I said.

“Do keep it in mind..always remember to keep me updated and if you run into any problem, call me and I’ll help out,” she said, and ended the call.

I put the phone on the counter

Looked at my training clothes, the shoulder that had healed properly, the apartment that was mine in every corner, the life that was fully assembled and functional and mine.

Logan was Plan A.

Dante was a door I wasn’t closing yet because what it contained was appealing to me.

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