The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule) novel Chapter 510

Growing up, his parents fought constantly, and his father was entirely absent from his childhood.

After college, his father had personally groomed him to take over the empire. He had idolized the man, but the tragedy was that business was the only thing they ever knew how to talk about. There was no real warmth.

He had promised himself that no matter how absolutely toxic things got with Tallulah, he was going to make sure his children grew up in a fully intact family.

To him, that was the ultimate duty of a real man.

As for Winona... if she ever decided she wanted to come crawling back to him, he'd still be perfectly willing to set her up in an apartment and take care of her.

*

Winona stopped by to visit her aunt Helena. Seeing that the salon was booming with customers, she was genuinely surprised.

Helena pointed across the street at Tallulah's salon. "They bled too much money and had to board the place up. I told you, running a business isn't a charity. You can't operate at a catastrophic loss just to spite your competition. No matter how deep their pockets are, they couldn't sustain that burn rate."

Winona did a quick search online and realized the internet had actually doxxed Tallulah's salon. Activists had flooded social media, demanding everyone boycott the "animal abuser's business."

The posts had tens of thousands of shares.

No wonder Tallulah's store shut down so fast.

It was a relief. At least now Tallulah wouldn't be able to harass her aunt on a daily basis.

As Winona was getting ready to head home, Wynne called her.

"Winona, let's go play tennis this Saturday! Invite Stefan, Forrest, and Simone. It'll be a great group. You young people spend way too much time cooped up in offices, you need to get out and move around on the weekends!"

Winona was surprised Wynne had already met Simone Sterling.

It sounded like things between Forrest and Simone were definitely getting serious.

Remembering Maxine Zeller's strict medical advice to stay active, Winona happily agreed.

That night, she brought it up to Stefan.

"Are you free this Saturday? We're all going to play tennis."

Stefan looked at her, amused. "You know how to play?"

Winona puffed her chest out confidently. "I was in the tennis club in college! Of course I can play. Oh, and I'm really good at fencing, too. I trained under my mentor for a while, and my technique is solid. We should spar sometime."

At the mention of fencing, a very strange, almost suspicious look flashed across Stefan's face.

But he quickly masked it, offering a low hum of agreement.

"Alright. I'll clear my schedule for you."

Winona took the bottle. "Thanks."

As she walked out of the administrative wing, Shirley stormed up behind her. "Winona Jowett."

Winona turned around. Seeing Tallulah's cousin glaring at her, her expression instantly iced over.

"Can I help you?"

"Since you're apparently sleeping with Mr. Goddard now, I'd appreciate it if you learned some basic decency and stopped leading Zack on!" Shirley hissed. "He's the most promising new talent in this entire institute. He doesn't deserve to be played by someone like you!"

Winona stared at her deadpan. "Zack and I are colleagues discussing work. I strongly advise you to stop spreading baseless rumors. If you don't, I will have my lawyer serve you with a defamation suit by the end of the day."

Being completely shut down only infuriated Shirley further. "Just keep your hands off him!"

Winona didn't even dignify that with a response, simply turning on her heel and walking away.

Humiliated, Shirley immediately called Tallulah to vent her frustrations.

Tallulah was already in a foul mood and had zero interest in comforting her cousin.

But when Shirley mentioned that Winona was getting cozy with one of the institute's top researchers, a dark, calculating idea sparked in Tallulah's mind.

"Shirley, next time you see Winona acting friendly with this Zack guy... do you think you could snap a few photos or get it on video?"