Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 696

Emmy didn’t even bother to lift her eyes. “That’s none of your business.”

But Dean’s voice softened. “Relax. I’m not going to come between you two anymore.”

“I’ve thought it over. If you’re happy, if you’re really doing well, then I should let you go.”

He hesitated, then said with that familiar edge of pride and obsession, “Besides, you’re pregnant with his child. I’d never want a woman who’s already had a baby.”

Emmy stared at him, stunned that he’d actually said that out loud.

But then again, Dean’s issues with cleanliness were almost legendary.

Maybe the birthday present she gave him last year actually changed something in him.

Either way, she felt a weight lift off her chest.

“If that’s how you see it, good.”

Dean just gave a slight smile and turned his attention to the food the waiter had just set down, eating calmly.

He watched Emmy across the table, and somehow, even the smallest bite tasted sweeter than anything he’d had in a long time.

He honestly couldn’t recall the last time they’d been able to sit together and share a meal without fighting.

Maybe this move, pretending to let go, really was the right call.

Emmy finished eating first. She dabbed her lips with a napkin, stood up, and got ready to leave.

Dean spoke up in that slow, unhurried way of his. “Think about that partnership I mentioned today.”

Emmy didn’t look back, just walked out of the restaurant a little faster.

As soon as she got to her suite, she spotted Abriella hurrying over.

“Emmy!”

Abriella ran straight for her, latching onto her arm like she was made of glue, her voice syrupy sweet.

“I really know I messed up. I swear, from now on, I’ll tell you everything. Whatever you want to know, you’ve got it. Please, Emmy, forgive me? Please? Please?”

Emmy could only sigh.

She pulled her arm away, putting a little space between them, her expression still cool and distant.

At first, James had refused. He didn’t want Emmy to know about all the dark, ugly history in the Nelson family.

But Abriella argued that if Emmy forgave her, she could help patch things up between them.

James thought it over for a long time, then finally agreed.

Now, facing Emmy’s shocked expression, Abriella held nothing back.

“The reason James was so scared to ask about the baby’s gender is because… he was terrified you’d have twins too, and the same thing would happen.”

“He and his brother Jamie are twins. Jamie was born half an hour earlier, so he became the family’s favorite, the one everyone paid attention to. And James…”

Abriella’s voice broke a little. “James was the one everyone said would bring disaster to the family. The unlucky one.”

“He never even got to nurse from his mother. They sent him away to the countryside right after he was born.”

“No one there knew who he was, so they just raised him like some abandoned orphan. His grandmother didn’t bring him back to the Nelson family until he was four. But not long after that, his parents sent him away again, to a strict, isolated training camp near the border.”

Emmy felt her heart twist painfully.

Four years old… He was just a little kid.