Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 193

Chapter 188: Celebratory Dinner

Sedona POV

I stood there for a moment with my water bottle and my still-shaking hands, my ears still ringing from the words that Maria just said ans a huge part of me unable to believe it.

Then Dante hugged me.

It was the kind of hug that didn’t announce itself before he did it, neother was i expecting it-he just stepped in and put his arms around me and I felt myself exhale something I’d been holding for eleven years as I held on tight to him, feeling better as I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

The laugh came up from somewhere deep and surprised me with how much it sounded like relief, like a door finally being swung open after being forgotten in a house that had been abandoned.

“I knew you could do it,” he said, into the top of my head.

I pulled back enough to look at him. My eyes were wet. I was not going to cry, I decided, and then I cried anyway, because my body was all for betraying me at every single moment.

“If you hadn’t trusted in me,” I said, “I might not have even tried.”

“That’s not true.” He sounded certain like how he always did when talking about a true fact that nobody can change his mind on. “Your talent got you in. All I did was open the door.”

“Don’t minimize the door.” I said as he laughed. I wiped my face with the hem of my shirt like a person with no dignity and zero regrets, and for a moment we just stood there on the court while the facility hummed quietly around us and the world felt good.

I don’t know what I expected when I got home. I think I imagined a quiet house. My parents maybe on the porch, my mother with tea, my father with his newspaper. A gentle evening where I could sit quietly with the news with me before I would finally get the courage to tell them that I had been scouted and would be joining the regional champions.

I heard the voices from the driveway.

ľ

I opened the front door and they descended-or rather, a loud cheer immediately they saw me yelling Surprise! then I saw the banner.

Cameron had made it himself, I was certain, because it was slightly crooked and the letters had been done in what appeared to be two different markers and it said “YOU DID IT in uneven capitals across the entire living room doorway.

Beneath it: my mother, my father, Cameron, Lucian, Lake, Drew, Rachel, Enzo, and Molly-who was in Rachel’s arms and waving a fist in the direction of the commotion with the solemn authority of someone who didn’t entirely understand what was happening but had decided to participate fully.

They cheered. Actual cheering, with volume.

Celebratory emner

Claim

My mother reached me first. She pulled me in and held on for a moment longer than the occasion strictly required, which told me she’d been nervous. My mother fed people when she was worried and held people when she was relieved, and right now she was doing both because she had also apparently prepared enough food for a minor emergency.

“I’m so proud of you,” she said into my hair. Then, slightly quieter: “I made three kinds of food.”

“I can see that.”

My father came next. He put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me with the particular expression he got when something had exceeded his expectation in a way he didn’t quite have words for. “Well done, Sedona,” he said, which from my father was essentially a hug and I’m proud of you statement.

Then Cameron materialized and lifted me approximately two inches off the ground in what he called a hug and I called a threat to spinal integrity, and I told him the banner was uneven, and he said he’d been working under time pressure, that Dante had texted him when we were coming home, and I told him it was perfect.

Lucian said congratulations with a warmth that made Cameron visibly pleased in the way he had been. trying to hide for approximately six weeks and failing entirely as my hunches were screaming at me and I was suspecting something but definition not saying anything until Cameron was ready to tell me.

Lake said, loudly and to no one in particular: “Sedona won a tennis thing!” which wasn’t precisely accurate but captured the spirit. Drew stood slightly to the side and watched me with those serious dark eyes until I crouched down to his level, and then he said, with great gravity: “My dad said you were going to be on television.” And then, after a pause: “I’m going to watch.”

Rachel appeared from behind Enzo with Molly balanced on her hip and tears already standing in her eyes, which was classic Rachel-she cried at commercials at airport reunions, and good news.

“I’m going to come to every single match,” she announced loudly as everyone turned to us with smiles on our faces as they chucked. “Every one. I’m going to make a sign.”

“Please don’t,” I said, and hugged her.

“I’m going to make several signs. They’re going to be very large. Enzo is going to carry them.”

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