FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 153

CHAPTER 153

MIE

She was waiting for me near the bar, one gloved hand resting on the back of a chair. Up close, the resemblance to Simon was impossible to miss: those vivid blue eyes, the straight nose, the same confidence.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I felt I needed to hear her out.

“Would you like to sit down?” she asked.

“The bar’s fine.”

She smiled politely at the bartender. “A whiskey, please.”

“The same,” I said.

When our drinks arrived, she lifted her glass and took a long, unhurried sip. Her hand didn’t shake. The dressing on her wrist showed beneath her cuff when she set the glass down.

“You recognized me from the society pages?” I asked.

“I did. You and Simon were photographed so many times at that event, I’d have to be remarkably inattentive not to notice.”

“So you’ve been keeping up with his life?”

“Not closely. I tried to get in touch a few months ago, but I wasn’t successful. He didn’t want to speak to

me.”

“He told me.”

Her eyes moved over my face. “Do you believe in fate, Miss Collins?”

“I don’t, but I don’t rule it out.”

A graceful smile touched her lips.

“I was having dinner, and then you walked in. What were the odds I’d happen to run into my son’s future wife? Maybe some things really are fate.”

She took another sip.

“I should congratulate you. You and Simon seem very happy together.”

“We are.”

“And he treats you well?”

The question felt strange, as if she wanted to know whether the boy she’d left had become a man she could approve of.

10:46 Wed, Sep 30 MT.

FAKA DATING WITH BENEFITS. MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“He does.”

glad.”

She spoke gently, then added, “Simon was always hard to get close to. Even as a child.”

I watched her.

Her tone remained mild. “He’s always been very good at holding a grudge.”

“I think he has his reasons.”

She glanced across the restaurant, where a server was arranging clean glasses.

“I imagine he told you his version.”

“He told me what happened.”

“Of course he did.” She rolled the glass between her fingers. “And what do you think?”

I took a small sip. The whiskey burned my tongue. “I think he was twelve.”

Her smile didn’t change, but something in her eyes sharpened.

“He didn’t understand that his father and I were unhappy…”

“Maybe he understood that your marriage was over. What he didn’t understand was why you were giving up on him, too.”

“Abandonment is a rather dramatic word, don’t you think? Simon stayed in his own home, with his father. going to the same school and surrounded by everything he knew. I left a marriage. I didn’t leave a child on the street.”

My fingers tightened around my glass. “You could’ve ended your marriage without walking away from your son.”

“William was his father. Simon had a home, a school, a family. I thought distance would be better than letting him see his mother with another man.”

“Did you ask Simon what he wanted?”

“He was a child.”

*Exactly.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “You disagree with me, then?” A hint of amusement softened her voice, delicate, almost affectionate.

I took a sip of whiskey to buy myself a second. “I do.”

She seemed genuinely surprised. “You don’t have children, do you?”

“No.”

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FAKK DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Then it’s very easy to judge motherhood from the outside.” She tilted her head slightly. “And since we’re being honest, be careful with my son, darling. Men don’t build billion-dollar fortunes by handing out Andness along the way. Simon has my blood, and I’ve never deluded myself about who I am. There’s a good chance he inherited a lot more from me than those blue eyes.”

She said it with an elegant smile, as if she’d just made a particularly clever joke.

“You know, you’re right,” I said, setting down my glass. “I don’t have children. But I know your son. And the more I hear you talk, the more certain I am Simon inherited nothing from you but those eyes.”

Her expression cooled.

“I know the man he became after you left him to make sense of your choice on his own. He protects everyone he loves and takes responsibility for things that aren’t his to carry. He turned his pain into control because that way, no one could catch him off guard again.” My voice shook. “You gave him those eyes, but he didn’t inherit your character.”

For the first time, she looked away.

Then she raised her glass. “You’re protective of him.”

“I love him.”

Her gaze returned to mine, measuring me.

“I can tell. I hope it does you some good.”

It sounded almost like a warning. Maybe that was the point. I left enough money on the counter to cover

both drinks and stood.

“Good night.”

I left before she could say something I’d regret answering. Outside, the streetlights blurred through my

tears.

I wasn’t crying for her. Not for the woman who’d turned her own life into an excuse for the choices she’d made.

I was crying for Simon. For the twelve-year-old boy who watched his mother leave and learned far too soon that even the people who were supposed to love him could walk away. And for the man who’d turned that wound into control, strength, and an almost obsessive need never to depend on anyone.

Simon had spent his whole life building defenses so no one could hurt him again.

And in that moment, I finally understood why he was so careful about who he let into his life. To Simon, trusting someone meant giving them the chance to leave.

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