Marrying The Cheating Ex's Billionaire Uncle

get married,"

ch Village, her voice barely carrying over the clatter of cutlery and the roar of conversation aroun

ing a faded Columbia University sweatshirt, the fabric worn thin at the elbows. He looked exactly like

nger than her, and for three years she had enjoyed this feeling of being in love. She liked the way he looked up at her in the morning, still half-asleep and needing her to make the coffee. She lik

nd she had let he

vulnerable to her stepmother and stepsister, who circled her like vultures. Marrying Julian Carlisle, heir to the Carlisle empire, was her fastest way

He was launched into a passionate complaint about his

pasta with theatrical outrage. "And he says my methodology is

fact that this same "tyrant" had been bowing and scraping to Julian at a Carli

. She dabbed her lips with a napkin, a deli

arefully constructed tremor into her voi

low, affectionate smile spread across

k velvet box. Her own heartbeat felt loud in

d her chair back. Then she did somethin

lt on o

The couple at the next table stared, th

ide, a simple, elegant platinum band-which she had redesigned from a piece of her mother

It shattered. Raw, undisguised panic flashed

escape route. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound

er eyes, however, were as cold as ice, methodically observing his composure

his chair back with a sc

et up!" he hissed, his voice a choke

d, her expression shifting to one of innoc

edle, puncturing the

graduated. I can't give you anything!" The

his was a man whose closet was filled with bespoke suits and w

asterpiece of forced bravery-of a woman trying to hide her heartbrea

whispered, her acting fla

He rushed to her side, taking her arm. "No, it's not your faul

k of the restaurant wi

ck. She sat down slowly, her finger

be this blunt. But sitting here now, in the wreckage of her own carefully constructed moment, she felt the sting more sharply tha

hip for three years, and she still couldn't tell w

r, the old family butler-the only person her mother had trusted, and the o

osal had failed. So be it. He had ne

ound her from behind, rest his chin on her shoulder, and say, "When I make i

ayed the bankrupt girl boss. Two performers

er. But she was the only