Mom, Don't Cry! Here comes a new Daddy! novel Chapter 155

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Clair

Chapter 138

(Rosalie’s POV)

Leaving those words, I leave the Hale Estate without looking back.

Don’t check to see if Sabrina heard at the door.

Just plant the seed and walk away.

Let doubt do the rest.

Back at my hotel, I wait.

Check my sss. Marcus sent the information I requested. Case studies of CEO marriages that created shareholder concern.

Six examples from the last decade. All factual. All documented.

I forward them to the sss address I created. The one that looks like it belongs to a concerned friend but actually belongs to me.

Then I draft the message.

Hi Sabrina,

We haven’t met, but I’m a friend of someone who works at Hale Global. I wanted to reach out because I’m concerned about something I’ve been hearing.

There’s talk among shareholders about Ethan’s upcoming marriage. Some people are worried about how it will affect the company’s image and stock price.

I think you should know what you’re walking into. What it might cost Ethan if this goes badly.

I know this might be hard to accept. But life isn’t a fairytale, and you, better than anyone should know that by now.

A friend

Then I attach Max’s case studies. Send it to Sabrina’s sss. The one she’s using for the wedding planning.

And wait.

My phone rings twenty minutes later. Unknown number.

I answer. “Hello?”

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“This is Rachel. I finished the article you requested. Sending it now.”

“What’s the headline?”

Clain

“When Love Meets the C-Suite: How CEO Marriages Affect Corporate Governance.’ Factual. Balanced. Everything you asked for.”

“Where are you publishing it?”

“My personal blog. It’ll be indexed by morning. Anyone searching for information about CEO marriages will find it.”

“Perfect. Thank you.”

“Rosalie? I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do.”

I hang up.

Check Rachel’s blog an hour later. The article is there. Professional. Well-researched. Exactly

what I needed.

I copy the link. Send it to Sabrina from a different anonymous sss.

Thought you might find this interesting. Given recent events.

Three anonymous contacts in one day. From different angles. All saying the same thing.

Sabrina marrying Ethan could hurt him professionally.

Any one of them, Sabrina might dismiss. But three? All with evidence? All from seemingly independent sources?

That’s harder to ignore.

I pour myself a drink. Sit by the window. Watch the city and wonder if Sabrina will take the

bait.

I won’t lie.

The woman is smarter than I expected. Too smart for her own good, and I’ll be lying if I say I don’t expect her to see through this plot.

She might just see through it.

But I’m banking on the fact that her love for Ethan will be true and greater than her desire to marry him. If everything goes according to plan, she will step back, not because of the

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articles, or the conversation I had with Kate, but because she cares too much for him to risk destroying everything he built.

And if it doesn’t work-if Sabrina is stronger than I think, if she fights through the doubt, if she marries Ethan anyway-then I’ll get on a plane.

I’ll go to Paris. Take the promotion. Build something new.

But not before showing everyone her true face. That she cares more about herself than she

does about Ethan’s future.

I’m not proud of this. Not proud of manipulating a woman who’s done nothing wrong except fall in love with the man I want.

But desperation makes you do ugly things.

And I’ve been desperate for seventeen years.

Three more days won’t make a difference.

(Sabrina’s POV)

I can’t stop hearing Rosalie’s voice.

The board will never accept her. Ethan’s future as CEO could be jeopardized.

It’s been two days since I overheard that conversation at the estate. Two days of those words looping in my head like a song I can’t turn off.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop open. Three articles from an anonymous sender open on my screen. Two more I found on my own. All saying variations of the same

thing.

The first article is about a tech CEO who married a former reality TV star. The stock dropped twelve percent in three weeks. The board forced him out six months later.

The second is about an oil executive whose wife’s political activism created PR nightmares. Constant protests. Media scrutiny. He resigned to “spend more time with family.”

The third is about a pharmaceutical CEO who married someone with a criminal record- minor drug possession from a decade ago, fully disclosed, completely in the past. Didn’t matter. Shareholders revolted. He stayed CEO but his wife became persona non grata at

every company event.

I close the laptop before I can read any more.

My hands are shaking.

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When I heard Rosalie’s conversation with Kate, I told myself to ignore her words. That she’s been undermining me from the beginning. That this is just another attempt to drive a wedge between Ethan and me, because she has feelings for Ethan.

But I can’t ignore the articles. The proof that personal lives affect professional outcomes.

And I can’t ignore the sss from the random “concerned friend” that reached out to me. It was too specific, too targeted to be random.

That some called ‘concerned friend’ is probably a minion of Rosalie’s. And the words I heard at the Hale Estate…

There’s talk among shareholders about Ethan’s upcoming marriage.

Is there? Or is Rosalie manufacturing that too?

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