Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 517

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Meanwhile, in a private suite of an upscale café downtown, a secret meeting was underway.

Isabel stirred her coffee and got straight to the point. “Did you find out what’s really going on between James and Jamie?”

Across from her, Claudia looked completely wiped out. No amount of expensive makeup could hide the dark circles under her eyes or the exhaustion that seemed to weigh her down.

Claudia had always had it easy. For half her life, anything she wanted was hers, just like that. But ever since she came back to the country, everything had started falling apart. Evelina’s reputation was ruined, and Claudia herself was barely holding it together. The media was hounding her, and Dean—like some rabid dog—kept circling, waiting for a chance to take her down. Right now, Isabel was the only person she could still use—the last piece she could move on this chessboard.

Claudia forced herself to sit up a little straighter and managed a calm, composed smile.

“I wouldn’t have asked you out if I didn’t have something useful,” she said.

Isabel leaned in, eyes sharp, ready for the details.

Claudia’s lips curled into a knowing smile and she dropped her bombshell. “Did you know Mrs. Nelson actually gave birth to twin boys?”

“What?” Isabel’s face went white. Her fingers clamped down on her coffee cup, stunned.

Claudia’s smile only deepened as she watched Isabel’s reaction.

“So you get it, right? In a family as powerful as the Nelsons, having twin sons means something… specific.”

Isabel knew all too well. In their world, there were always these dark, twisted secrets—things everyone pretended not to know, but everyone whispered about behind closed doors.

She suddenly remembered her mother grabbing her hand, urging her to do whatever it took to have Jamie’s child.

“Isabel, if you get pregnant by him, you’ll be the next Mrs. Nelson! But listen—never have twin boys!”

Back then, Isabel hadn’t understood and asked why.

Her mother’s face had gone so serious. “Twin sons are bad luck, especially in families like the Nelsons. One of them always ends up being sacrificed to protect the other’s future.”

“The unlucky one gets cast out. The family erases his name from the records and throws him out to survive on his own. Most of them don’t even make it to adulthood.”

Her mother had said the opposite was true for boy-girl twins. If you could have a boy and a girl together, that was considered a huge blessing, a sign of wealth and good fortune.