My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 391

Mrs. Vesper

Delia’s POV

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The lights in the ballroom dropped another degree. Conversation softened into a low hum. I stood at the side of the stage with my hands folded in front of me, the platinum band cold against my skin. A staff member gave me a short nod. It was time. Noah walked up the side steps first. He did not look at me. He never did when it mattered. He stopped at the center of the stage, adjusted the microphone once, and faced the room with the same unreadable expression he wore in every meeting.

“Good evening,” he said. His voice carried cleanly. “Thank you for joining us tonight. Before we begin the formal program, I would like to make a personal introduction.”

A ripple moved through the tables. People shifted in their seats. I felt the weight of hundreds of eyes turning toward the stage. Noah turned his head slightly in my direction. Still no softness. Only the signal.

I stepped into the light.

The heat of the spotlight hit my shoulders. I kept my chin up and my smile in place, the same smile I had practiced in the car mirror on the way over. Emerald dress. Straight spine. Ring visible under the lights.

“This is my wife,” Noah said. “Mrs. Delia Vesper.”

For one full second the ballroom went completely quiet.

Then the whispers started.

I felt them more than I heard them. Heads turning. Phones tilting just enough to capture the moment without being obvious. I kept the smile steady and let my gaze move across the main table exactly once.

Julian’s expression did not change. He watched me the way he watched every unexpected variable enter a room. Measuring. Filing it away. Katia sat beside him in that silver dress that still made my own choice feel smaller. Her face showed nothing at first. Then her eyebrows lifted a fraction. Surprise, followed by something sharper. Not jealousy. Assessment. She looked at the ring on my finger, then at Noah, then back at me.

I held her gaze for half a second longer than necessary and smiled a little wider.

Let her see it. Let her sit there in her perfect dress and process the fact that the woman she had reduced to a laughing stock that afternoon now carried a different last name. A name that was about to mean something in this city.

Noah continued without missing a beat.

“We appreciate your presence tonight as Vesper Group takes its first public step in New York. There will be time for conversation later. For now, please enjoy the evening.”

He stepped back from the microphone and walked off the opposite side of the stage. He did not offer me his arm. He did not wait. I followed at a controlled distance, the way I had followed him out of his office the morning we signed the papers. The message remained the same. The marriage existed for the room. It did not exist for him.

As soon as I cleared the stage, the volume in the ballroom rose. Conversations restarted with new energy. I heard my name attached to the word Vesper more than once. Some of the same people who had avoided my eyes for weeks now tracked my movement across the floor. The ring suddenly felt heavier and more useful at the same time.

Adrian appeared at my elbow.

“You did fine,” he said under his breath. “Stay visible. Mingle. Do not go near the Windsors unless they approach first.”

“I know how to work a room.”

“Then do it without creating a headline.”

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He moved away. I took a glass of chatnpagne I did not plan to drink and began a slow circuit along the edge of the tables. Compliments came quickly now. The dress. The ring. The surprise of the announcement. I accepted each one with the same practiced warmth Lhad used for years. Inside, the jealousy from earlier still sat unresolved. Katia’s silver dress kept catching the light every time I glanced toward the main table. She looked calm. Untouched by the murmur that now followed me. Of course she did. She had walked into this room already winning.

I was halfway through a shallow conversation with a donor’s wife when I felt someone stop beside me.

Katia.

Up close the silver dress was even worse. It made my emerald look like a safe, obvious choice. She held a glass of water and studied me with that same quiet attention she had used in her office.

“Mrs. Vesper,” she said. The title sat between us with a faint edge. “That was unexpected.”

“Was it?” I kept my smile in place. “Congratulations seem to be in order for both of us these days.”

Katia’s mouth moved slightly. Not quite a smile.

“You look well.”

“I am well.”

“And Noah Vesper,” she said, glancing once toward where he stood with a group of men near the front. “That moved quickly.” “Some things do.”

She looked at me for a longer moment. There was no open hostility in her face, only a kind of tired clarity that somehow stung

more.

“Be careful, Delia,” she said quietly. “New names do not erase old patterns.”

Before I could answer, Julian appeared at her side. He placed a hand on the back of her chair, not on her, but close enough to signal the same claim he always carried. His eyes met mine for the first time since the introduction.

“Delia.”

“Julian.”

Nothing else. No congratulations. No comment on the marriage. Just my name, delivered with the same distance he had used when he pushed the investment folder back across his desk. He guided Katia a step closer to their table with a small movement of his hand. She went with him without another word.

r

I stood there with the champagne glass sweating in my fingers and the platinum band digging into my skin. The jealousy that had started when I first saw her dress twisted tighter. She still moved through the world like it belonged to her. I was still the one performing.

Noah’s voice cut across the ballroom before I could follow them or invent a reason to leave the conversation looking stronger than I felt.

“If I could have your attention once more.”

The room quieted again. Noah stood at the microphone with Adrian just behind him. The energy shifted. This was the moment the entire evening had been built around.

“It is my honor,” Noah said, “to introduce the man who built Vesper Group from the ground up. The Chief Executive Officer of Vesper Group.”

The side door opened.

I turned with everyone else, the ring on my finger suddenly forgotten, the silver dress forgotten, the entire messy weight of the

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night narrowing to the figure who stepped into the light.

The real introductions had only just begun.

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