Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Brother’s Guilt.

Cameron’s POV

I stared at my phone for a full minute after Sedona’s call ended, my hand shaking slightly as I lowered it gently to my desk as I exhaled taking a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to process the bomb that I just received this night.

It had been five years. Five years of searching, of hiring private investigators, of lying awake at night wondering if my little sister was alive or dead. And not getting anything, whatever happened to Sedona, I hadn’t been able to discover it and now, just like that, she’d called.

She was sick. Dying.

The words kept repeating in my mind even after the call, I wanted to ask Sedona if this was a cruel joke, but I knew she would never lie about something serious such as cancer.

And her timeline she was given was barely three months. My brilliant, stubborn, beautiful little sister who used to follow me around the tennis courts when we were kids, who’d been destined for greatness before she’d thrown it all away to run from a marriage she didn’t want.

And I’d let her go. We all had. We didn’t want to force her to do anything that she didn’t want to.

“Cameron?” Jennifer’s voice pulled me from my thoughts as I jerked back, taken unaware, when had she gotten in here. I looked up to find my mother standing in the doorway of my office, her styled hair catching the late afternoon light. At fifty two, Jennifer Preston was still a remarkable woman, never to be taken for granted, someone who commanded both authority and power no matter where she was, though the years of searching for Sedona had added lines to her face, that no amount of skincare could hide.

“Darling, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s wrong?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. How did I tell her? How did I explain that Sedona was alive but dying, that we’d found her only to the possibility that we might lose her again?

“Cameron.” My mother’s voice got harder as she stepped into my office, closing the door behind her sealing off the background voice as she focused her gaze on me, her eyes searching my face trying to pick out what could possibly make me this worried.

“You’re frightening me. What’s happened?”

“It’s Sedona,” I said finally, my voice rough. “She called.”

The color drained from my mother’s face. She gripped the back of the chair across from my desk, her knuckles turning white as she held on tight, not letting go. “Is she… is she alive?”

“Yes. She’s in Chicago. She’s been there the whole time, apparently.” The words tasted bitter. Chicago. We’d searched everywhere-Europe, Asia, South America. Hell we even searched freaking Africa, thinking she was hiding there. But it had never occurred to us that she might be hiding in plain sight, just a few states away. The best hiding places were as always, the one nearest to us, because we wouldn’t assume she would hide so near and yet so..so far.

13

<A Brother’s GUTH-

+25 Points >

“Chicago?” My mother’s voice rose with a mixture of disbelief and relief. “She’s been in Chicago this entire time? Why didn’t she call? Why didn’t she come home? Is she hurt? Is someone keeping her there against

her will?”

“No, nothing like that. She’s… I hesitated, trying to figure out how to explain without revealing the cancer. “She’s married. Has a son. But things aren’t good, Mom. She wants to come home.

Jennifer’s hand flew to her mouth, tears already rolling down her face, happiness or disbelief, I wasn’t sure of yet..”

A son? We have a grandson? Oh my God, Parker!” She turned toward the door, ready to call for my father, but I stood quickly and caught her arm before she could reach the door.

“Mom, wait. Please.”

She turned back to me, her eyes searching my face. “What aren’t you telling me, Cameron?”

I’d never been good at hiding things from my mother. She had an uncanny ability to read people, but this I had to keep from her, at least for now.

If she knew Sedona was dying, she’d fall apart. And Sedona needed me to be strong for her.

“She’s been through a lot,” I said carefully. “The marriage isn’t good. Her husband has been… let’s just say he’s not the man she thought he was. She needs space, needs time to process everything before she sees everyone.”

“But she’s okay? She’s safe?”

“She will be. I’m going to bring her home.”

“We should all go,” Jennifer said immediately, already pulling out her phone. “I’ll call Parker, we’ll take the jet, we can be there in a few hours-”

“No.” My voice was sharper than I intended, and my mother froze. I softened my tone. “Mom, she specifically asked for just me. She’s fragile right now, overwhelmed. If we all show up, it might be too much. It might scare her away again.”

The fear in my mother’s eyes told me she understood. We’d lost Sedona once because we’d pushed too hard, tried to force her into a marriage she didn’t want, we couldn’t afford to make that same mistake again.

“But I’m her mother,” Jennifer whispered. “I need to see her. I need to know she’s really okay.”

“And you will. I promise. Just… give me a day or two to assess the situation, to see what she is going through then I will talk to her about seeing everyone else. But I have to make sure she’s ready. Please, Mom. Trust me on this.”

Jennifer looked at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “Okay. Okay, but you call me the second you see her. The second, Cameron. I want to know everything.”

“I will.”

“And Parker needs to know. He’s been-” Her voice broke. “He’s been so lost without her. We both have.”

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