The Billionaire Ex-Wife and the Beggar He Became novel Chapter 257

After swallowing, Winona looked at Yves, mortified. "Yves, please, don't listen to my sister. She's just talking nonsense." Then she glared at Mia. "Mia Summers! If you ever embarrass me in public like this again, I'm never taking you out with me. No more designer bags, no more makeup, nothing!"

Mia, terrified, immediately confessed. "It… it was Yves! He asked me to ask you what you thought. And Grandma and I both think you and the mercenary would be a great match. We really do need a man in the house…"

"If we need a man so badly, why don't *you* find one?" Winona shot back.

"I… I've tried… I've found two or three. But… none of them are as useful as Yves," Mia mumbled.

Winona was speechless. She looked at Yves, completely embarrassed. "Yves…"

"I'll wait for you," he said, his voice simple and direct.

Winona didn't know what to say. Yves, sensing the growing awkwardness, suggested he drive them home. Winona nodded.

After seeing Helga, Mia, and Zane safely upstairs, Winona stayed behind. "Yves," she began, "you're one of Greenwood City's elite. Your reputation might not be the best, but those are just rumors. I think you're a good man."

"If you think I'm a good man, then marry me. I promise I won't be a fool like Julian," he stated bluntly.

"If things were different… if I had never fallen in love with Julian, never married him… if I had met you back then, I would have said yes in a heartbeat."

"But now… I come with three dependents, and I have a daughter with Julian. I've been through a painful marriage. I just don't have the courage to fall in love again."

"But," she said, her voice dropping as she looked down in shame, "I'm willing to be your mistress. Whenever you want to start, just say the word. Okay?"

He gently took her by the shoulders. "I would never let you be my mistress. Not in this lifetime. I know you don't want that, so it will never happen."

With that, he turned and walked away. When he reached his car, he looked back at her. "I'll be there when you go to court."

Winona sighed. "The other night, when I had no idea if he was going to kill me or just ruin my reputation, I didn't dare provoke him further. If I had told him I was Julian's wife, what do you think he would have done?"

"He dotes on Felicity so much, he probably would have killed you on the spot," Zachary blurted out.

"Exactly. So I couldn't tell him," Winona said with a bleak smile. "In Julian's heart, his real wife has always been Felicity. Telling people I'm Julian's wife has always been a source of humiliation for me. It's better not to say it at all."

Hearing this, Zachary's heart ached for her.

Winona, however, forced a smile and changed the subject. "Mr. Shaw, I wasn't here yesterday. Was everything okay at the construction site?"

"They made a lot of irreversible mistakes, and they don't even know it yet," Zachary replied. "For one, the mortise and tenon joints were designed to have some give, like a spring. They built them so rigidly that they can't be disassembled, and with no room for expansion. The whole thing is already shorter than it should be."

A sense of relief washed over Winona.