HER BILLIONAIRE'S SECOND CHANCE.

d to sig

Julian Ashford, tech mogul, perpetual absence, the man I'd married six years ago in a cathedral filled with

hating how small

ere in his perfectly tailored suit, checking his Rolex. Always checking that damn

e weeks ago, sitting across from him at the dining table we'd used maybe five times in six years

I'll have my lawyers

ttempt to fix what had been broken from the start. Ju

ll we'd ever been a transaction. My father needed capital to save his manufacturing patents from bankruptcy. Juli

My lawyer had called twice about the settlement Julian was offering, enough money to live comfo

t the settle

motion I'd seen from him in months. "Don'

ountain pen that I'd kept even after he died last year. Even after I realiz

om. Let him have the penthouse with its floor-to-ceiling windows and million-dollar vie

the folder back at

like my presence might contaminate him i

d trips to Paris, to Bali, to anywhere that might make me feel less alone, and he'd never noticed when I cancelled them becau

rtment," I said

t like I'd announced

oneliness and disappointment of six years suddenly pushing against my ribs. "Where they have n

voice went cold. "You think you can contes

to my own ears. "You really don't know me at all, do you? Af

I saw something flash in his dark eyes. Anger, maybe. Or

eeling like a ghost in my own life. Do you know what it's like, Julian? To cook dinner every night for a month, hoping you'll come home? To plan a weekend away and have you

for." His voice was flat, businessl

t of him. "But I thought we might at least become friends. I thought maybe, eventually,

s watch again.

d. Julian alway

said. "You're

might say something. Apologize, maybe. Or acknowledge that we'd both failed at this

dn't apologize. Didn'

morrow," he said instead. "Yo

and sixty hours until I could stop being Mrs. Juli

t," I m

ithout lo

empty doorway. Then I went to our bedroom, my bedroom, since Julian had

ad ordered for charity galas, the diamond earrings he'd given me for our first anniversary, still in their Tiffany b

ght, I w

with creaky floors and a radiator that clanged like it w

s per

ding under loose sweaters for weeks now. The secret I'd discovered three days a

now," I w

's lawyer confirming the papers had be

ut what to do about the baby