FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 93

CHAPTER 93

AMIE

“Those kids,” I said, setting my fork down, “are the daughters of a friend of Simon’s who’s in the hospital. Yes, he’s taking care of them. But since you decided to play investigator, you could’ve at least done a decent job. Abigail married another man and had those kids with him.”

The voices around the table went silent.

“But you know what surprises me?” I said, standing up. “It’s not you, Vanessa. You’re pathetic. Mean. And jealous.”

She opened her mouth, but I didn’t let her speak.

“What surprises me most, and disappoints me,” I said, my voice lower now, “is all of you.”

I looked at my aunts, one by one. Even my mother.

“All of you are scandalized by a lie she just told to question my morals. But when I caught Vanessa in bed with my fiancé, nobody said a word. Nobody defended me. Nobody was even surprised.”

The silence was deafening.

“So let me ask you: why do I always have to fight to be respected in this family?” I asked, and my voice cracked. “Like I’m the one in the wrong? Like I’m to blame for being betrayed?”

I looked at my mother. Then my grandmother. The tears started falling, and I didn’t try to hide them

anymore.

“You want to know something?”

I pushed my chair back.

“Maybe I’m partly to blame for this. Because I spent way too long trying to convince you all that my life

was great.”

I grabbed my purse.

My mother looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

I took a deep breath.

It was a lie I was too tired to keep up anymore.

“Simon and I aren’t engaged.”

The silence was immediate.

My grandmother blinked.

Aunt Marta covered her mouth.

12:30 Tue Sep 29 MT

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

Vanessa went completely still.

Mom was the first to find her voice.

“What?”

“We were never engaged.”

“Jamie, I don’t understand.”

“There’s no wedding, Mom. There’s no engagement. There never was.”

“Then why did you lie?”

I gripped the strap of my purse tighter.

I looked around the table.

“I wanted you to look at me and think I’d moved on.”

My voice dropped.

“And the saddest part is I actually thought I needed to invent a man who was in love with me just to finally be respected by my own family.”

I swallowed hard.

“But you know what? I don’t need a man to prove I have value. And I sure as hell don’t need to keep surrounding myself with people who go out of their way to make me feel small, ashamed, or not enough.”

I felt a light tug on the hem of my shirt.

I looked down.

My grandmother was staring up at me, eyes glistening.

Instantly, all the anger inside me eased a little.

I knelt in front of her and held her hand in mine.

“I’ll come visit you another day, Grandma,” I whispered.

I brought her wrinkled hand to my lips and kissed it.

“But don’t ask me to keep sitting at a table with these people. They’re not part of my life anymore.”

My throat tightened.

“It took me a long time to learn to love myself. Now I respect myself enough to not accept even the smallest disrespect just because it comes from family.”

My grandmother nodded slowly.

“That’s okay. I love you, my girl.”

12:38 Tue Sep 29 1 MT·

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

She held my face and kissed my forehead.

hat was enough.

The tears fell before I could stop them.

I closed my eyes for a second, squeezed her hand, and stood up.

I grabbed my purse.

I didn’t look at anyone else.

I crossed the room and was almost at the door when Vanessa’s voice came from behind me.

“You don’t have to make such a scene, Jamie.”

I stopped.

“You just need to accept that some things simply didn’t work out for you.”

I stayed facing away.

I wasn’t going to answer.

I really wasn’t.

Then she added:

“To be honest, none of us really believed a man like that would actually fall for a phony like you.”

I took a deep breath.

Once.

Twice.

Then I turned around.

“Explain something to me, Vanessa.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“What exactly do you think I lost?”

Her smile faltered.

“Your husband?”

I let out a short laugh.

“That trash?”

Her face hardened.

1:38 Tue Sep 29 ) MT.

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“I should thank you on my knees for the rest of my life for doing me that favor.”

few women at the table sucked in a breath.

I took a step toward her.’

“Because while you’re wasting all this energy trying to convince me you won something of mine, your husband’s probably on shift right now, hooked up with some coworker.”

“Jamie!”

“Don’t kid yourself, Vanessa.”

My voice came out low.

“Men like him don’t change just because they swap out the woman.”

Her eyes started burning with hate.

“You’re no different. You’re just next in line.”

I turned my back.

“How dare you say something like that to my pregnant daughter?” Vanessa’s mother shouted.

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