The Billionaire’s Fight For Redemption (Noah and Sierra) novel Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Noah.

I stay outside long after Sierra’s footsteps fade down the path. The swing creaks under me as I push it back and forth, my jaw tight, her words clawing at me.

Manipulative and a liar.

The word scrapes raw across my chest, cutting me down over and over again until my soul feels like nothing but a shredded piece of meat.

She called Chloe manipulative.

The fuck does Sierra know? My Chloe wasn’t like that. She couldn’t have been. She was the kindest, most selfless person I’ve ever known–next to my mother. Chloe didn’t have a single malicious bone in her body. There is no way she would have lied to me.

Just thinking about it makes my fists curl so tight my knuckles ache. The audacity she has, spitting out shit like that, dragging Chloe’s name through the mud when she isn’t even here to defend herself. It makes me sick.

I never liked Sierra, but I never stood in the way of her friendship with Chloe. Just like I tolerated her for the sake of my family, I would have tolerated her for the sake of my wife.

I hate that Sierra’s twisting her into something she never was. Why? Because she’s jealous. Because she couldn’t stand the fact that Chloe had me. That I chose Chloe. She hated it so much she let it rot their friendship.

My hands tighten on the rope. Fuck that. Sierra’s the manipulative liar. She was the one who was always scheming. Always trying to have her way.

Chloe loved her like a sister, and Sierra repays her by spitting venom on her memory. That’s who Sierra really is… spiteful, bitter and jealous.

And yet… my stomach twists with memories I don’t want: Chloe cutting phone calls short, or her clipped smile whenever Sierra’s name slipped into conversation.

My mind edges toward those cracks, but I slam the door on them before they widen. Chloe was perfect. She is perfect. She has always been perfect. And I’ll be damned before I let Sierra’s lies crawl into my head and plant doubts where none exist. 2

The sliding door opens, pulling me from my downward spiral. Small feet patter across the deck. Nolan steps out first, Nova trailing close behind him, clutching a cookie like treasure. Without asking, Nolan plops onto the swing beside me, his shoulder pressing into mine. Nova climbs straight into my lap like she’s claimed the spot forever.

“Aunt Sierra left,” Nolan says, swinging his legs idly.

The words land like a punch. My head jerks toward him. “Who told you to call her that?” My tone is too sharp, and I force it lower.

I swear if she told them to call her that, I’ll fucking strangle her.

“Grandma,” he answers easily, not even blinking.

I let out a sigh. Of course, she did… but that still doesn’t ease the anger I feel towards Sierra.

I hated seeing her with my kids. I hated how at ease they were around her, how Nova curled into her like she belonged there. It made something in me want to tear that smug little scene apart.

Nova looked so peaceful, so content in Sierra’s arms, and that image twisted something inside me. She should have been like that in Chloe’s arms. Chloe should be the one holding her, tickling her, peppering her with kisses and whispering comforting words to her. Instead Chloe is gone, and my daughter finds comfort in the arms of the woman who kept wounding her mother again and again. The unfairness of it burned like poison.

Nova tilts her face up at me, her cheeks still dotted with crumbs. “When will I see Aunt Sierra again?”

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