Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 81

Logan’s POV

“Where else would you go?” She said it simply, without sentiment, the way she’d always dealt with the obvious things that clearly did not need explaining because the reason was obvious. “You’ve been coming to this house your whole life when things were too large to carry alone and i have been here for you every single time that you came through that door seeking me, the child that i knew rather than the man you forced yourself to be. That’s what i am here for.”

I stood watching the sky brighten slowly but surely, the light blue that preceded the dark showing up, tinting the sky as the cries of birds were beginning to be heard.

“I need to arrange things before i go out there and find Sedona myself,” I said. “Nick’s care, while I’m-I don’t know how long this will take and i do not want to disrupt him from his daily routine here, he is too young to be on the road with me, and stay indoors alone in hotel rooms while i find his mother. He can’t come with me, not while he’s still recovering from last night, not while I don’t know what I’m walking into.” I paused. “I’ll have to call my mother.”

Something moved across Brooke’s expression at that. Not quite displeasure-she was too controlled for that-but something adjacent to it. “Will she be willing?”

“She’ll be willing to watch Nick. Whether she’ll be willing to do it without commentary is another question. “I knew that my mother was going to be a hard nut to crack and she was going to be very displeased about me searching for the same woman she despised all along.

“Logan.” Brooke’s voice stopped me at the edge of the sitting room. “When you speak to Sherry-about the things she said to Sedona. About the part she played in all of this.” She paused, measuring her words as she continued speaking.

“Don’t let her reframe it. She’s very good at reframing things into versions of events that center her own intentions rather than the impact of what she did, she is going to try to make herself look like the victim and Sedona the instigator. Don’t let her do that. Not this time

I thought about what Sedona had come home to that day, with that hospital reports and finding my mum, saying spiteful things to her.

“I won’t,” I said.

I drove home through a city that was beginning to wake up as people were moving out and about, trying to catch the morning bus to work.

Mrs. Peterson was in the kitchen when I arrived, which meant Nick wasn’t up yet.

“How is he?” I asked.

“Still sleeping. His temperature is normal, the swelling around his eyes has come down completely.” She hesitated. “He asked for her again. When I checked on him around five.”

I drank the coffee. “I know.”

“Mr. Hayes. I don’t want to overstep.”

“Go ahead.”

“Whatever is happening with Mrs. Hayes-wherever she is-Nick needs her. He’s been declining since she left in ways, that doesn’t show like the skin allergies but that doesn’t mean that it is real. He’s quieter. He’s eating less. He asks for her every day and accepts the answer and asks again the next day as if he believes eventually the answer will be different.

She folded her hands on the counter. “I’ve worked for several families. I’ve watched children lose attachment figures. I know what it looks like.”

“I’m going to find her.”

“Good. What do you need me to do?”

“I need to make a trip. I don’t know exactly when or for how long, but I’ll need someone here with Nick. Someone he knows and trusts.”

“I’m here.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Another pause. “Mr. Hayes. When we find her, you should be prepared for the possibility that she doesn’t want to be found. By you, specifically.”

I know.

“All right. I’ll be in touch.”

I hung up and sat for a moment in the quiet of the study thinking about how Brooke and Marcus had said similar things to me, then forced that thought deep down in a compartment in my brain.

Then I called my mother.

Sherry answered on the first ring, which meant she’d been awake for hours. My mother was not capable of sleeping past five am, this was a habit that i knew even as a child.

“Logan.” She sounded careful, hesitant, the same way she had been since i had lost my cool on her when Sedona left and found out about the horrible things she had said to her. “How is Nicholas? I heard he was unwell.”

“He had a severe allergic reaction last night. We were in the emergency room until late. He’s fine now-the hospital got it under control.”

“Poor darling. I’ll come by this morning-”

“I need to ask you something first.”

She paused for a moment, thinking of if to accept it. “Of course.”