The Billionaire Ex-Wife and the Beggar He Became novel Chapter 109

"Do you like it?" Yves Prescott asked, his gaze intent.

"It's beautiful," Winona replied honestly.

But so was the money.

Eighty million.

He really was living proof that money talks.

Winona had never thought of herself as poor—she made well over three hundred thousand a year—but compared to someone like Yves Prescott, a true financial powerhouse, she felt like a flea on an elephant's back.

"Let me put it on for you." Yves picked up the sapphire necklace from its velvet box. "It would look perfect on your elegant neck."

Winona instinctively took several steps back, pushing the box back toward him. "I'm sorry, this is far too expensive. I can't accept it. Let's keep things strictly professional. At work, I'll play my part—your… lover."

Yves' lips curled in a wicked smile. "Do you really think you have the right to say no?"

"What?"

"Maybe the first couple of times we crossed paths were just coincidences. You bumped into me by accident, you saw me outside the Shepherd estate by accident. But at the Shepherd family's birthday banquet, you made your move—right in front of everyone. You seduced me, and in exchange, I helped your three burdens out of their mess. Now you want to back out?"

Winona had no words.

It was true. She had made the first move.

"If I could protect your three burdens at the banquet, I could just as easily stand by and watch them fall. If you refuse to cooperate with me, and I announce to the world that there's nothing between us, I'm pretty sure by tomorrow, you and your family will be thrown out of Greenwood City."

With that, Yves slipped the sapphire back into the box and nudged it toward her. "Whether you want it or not, you'll take it. I won't have my girlfriend looking shabby."

He turned and strode away.

That word—girlfriend—stung.

Winona seethed. She pulled out the replica scalpel she always carried and stalked after him.

Then he drove off.

Winona reached her front door.

She hadn't spoken to her family since last night's party. She still hadn't settled the score with them for the disaster they'd caused her at the banquet.

She was home early tonight, and dinner hadn't even started yet. Surely they weren't asleep already?

As if hiding would help. You can run, but you can't hide forever.

She pushed open the door and found all three of them crammed together on the little bench, looking like a trio of defendants awaiting trial, wide-eyed as she came in.

Zane, who was squeezed in the middle, blurted out the moment he saw her, "Mom, I'm sorry! Please don't be mad, okay?"

Winona shot Helga and Mia each a sharp look before softening her tone for Zane. "Tell me, sweetheart—what are you apologizing for?"